Earth 2point1
by BuggyQ
Summary: A nearly complete rethinking of the Earth 2 concept. Die-hard Earth 2 fans may be disappointed. See my author's note at the start of Chapter 1 before flaming, please. A group of colonists trying to escape the confines of space-station life find themselves on a new world with a whole host of new challenges-and a few old ones.
1. Chapter 1

Earth Two

Chapter 1: An Insolent Advance

Summary: _Long intro here, so bear with me. Early in the fall of 2011, I was talking with a friend about the abomination that was Terra Nova (skinny dipping? On a world with freaking *dinosaurs*? See megalodon—yes it was long after the dinosaurs, but do you think it just evolved out of *nothing*? See Otodus. Hey, I like paleontology and have shark fear. But I digress…). Anyway, we were both complaining about how many badly-written shows there are, and yet we were thrilled with how many well-written shows there are (most of them British—Primeval and Doctor Who to name two), and she said something to the effect of, "How hard can it really be?" Well, in the interest of not feeling like a Monday-morning quarterback, I thought I'd see just how hard it was. I decided to take a series that hadn't made it, and see if I could retool it into something reasonably good, at least by my standards._

_Along came Netflix, popping up Earth 2 as a possible download I might like. I remembered liking the basic premise, and loving a couple of the characters, then hating what they did with it, but I pulled it up anyway. And thus began an obsession (no, I'm not exaggerating—the joys of being bipolar: write like crazy or up the meds, and writing is cheaper)._

_For those of you who liked Earth 2 as it was, I don't know if you'll like what I'm doing. I'm really taking the most basic premise (sick kids, Eden Project taking them to a new planet) and leaping wildly off into a different direction from that. There will be many parts of Chapter 1 you'll recognize (much of it direct transcriptions of the show's dialog with my small additions, because the first episode was really, really good as it was), but after that, fugeddaboudit. Even in this first chapter, I have given the characters my own unique flavah (like trying to make Tru slightly less irritatingly cute and slightly less unbelievably stupid), and I'm adding a few of my own original characters. So any of you who may worry that you don't know the Earth 2 story well enough, leave your worries on the doorstep. All you need to know for my story is right here._

_For those of you who know me from my writing in the Legend of the Seeker universe, this is quite a departure in genre, but it's still my writing. Hopefully, you'll still like it. Sorry for the long absence—I blame a series of epic RL crises and an equally epic case of writer's block after the second season of LotS started (Cara was like Yoko Ono to the first season's John Lennon, and I couldn't get past that)._

_It was my plan to see if I could write the equivalent of a full season of episodes, with each chapter acting as a single episode, but with a full season story arc. Because of episode per chapter approach, the chapters are a little longer than I usually make mine. And if you launch in reading, be warned—I have already written more in this universe than I have in my entire LotS oeuvre, and I'm only through what would be the first season. I have a plan for more, believe it or not, but we'll see. My muse is decidedly fickle, and my life is complicated. But rave reviews do seem to feed the muse. ;-)_

Disclaimer: Obviously, much of this isn't mine. The principals (Devon, Julia, Danziger, Solace, Uly, Tru, Yale, Morgan and Bess) are definitely not mine. But everyone else is truly mineminemine (especially Melanie—so keep yer stinkin' paws off her). I make no claim to the Earth 2 universe, and I'm certainly not trying to make any money on this. I know better, and besides, I think if I were doing it for money, it'd be a lot less fun.

* * *

"It's hard to believe it's finally happening," Richard Heiberg said, smiling at Devon Adair as they walked down the corridor to the airlock of the advance ship.

"I'm not counting any chickens, Richard," Devon said, shaking her head. "I've had the Council pull the rug out from under me too many times already. No, I'll believe it's happening when I'm getting into the coldsleep bed."

"See, Devon, that's difference between us," Richard said, grinning. "You're such a pessimist."

Devon laughed. "If that were true, I don't think I'd have gotten past your secretary."

"I'm glad you did," Richard said, looking at her fondly. "I still wish I were going with you."

Devon's face fell. "Richard, I'm—"

Richard waved his hand dismissively. "I shouldn't have said it, Devon. It's not your fault, and you don't need me casting a cloud over the day. No," he continued, taking her arm and continuing down the corridor, "you'll be seeing real clouds soon enough." He stopped as they approached the airlock. "Listen, Devon, I want you to promise me something."

"Anything for my biggest donor," Devon said sincerely, though she knew it sounded ironic.

Richard snorted slightly, then his look turned serious again. "In about 23 years," he said, looking down at her, "you'll be getting a message from me saying that we've found a cure for the Syndrome, and my daughter is going to be fine. If I have the math right, I want to get the same from you and Ulysses in about 45 years."

Devon swallowed, trying to get past the lump in her throat. The gray in Richard's beard was evidence enough that it was unlikely he'd be around to get her message, but that wasn't the point. "It's a deal," she said finally.

Richard nodded briskly. "All right then, I'll let you get back to the many things I'm sure you still have to do. Good luck, Devon," he said, shaking her hand, and then he pulled her into an enveloping hug. He released her after a long moment, squeezed her arms one more time, then turned and headed for the airlock.

Devon watched him go, and felt the familiar wave of guilt. _Could you have told him his daughter wasn't well enough to come? _she asked herself for the thousandth time, and the answer was the same. _Of course not—that's why you hired Dr. Heller, you coward._ She shook off the thought and turned to head for her quarters.

Dr. Julia Heller looked down at the checklist on her tablet as she stepped into the airlock to board the advance ship. _This is going to take forever_, she thought, then came up short as she looked up and saw Richard Heiberg stepping into the airlock from the other direction. Her heart sank. She stepped to the side to allow him to pass, hoping that he'd just ignore her like he'd been doing for the past two months.

No such luck. "Hello, Dr. Heller," Heiberg said coolly, turning to face her as she started to pass him.

"Mr. Heiberg," Julia said quietly, nodding, and then took an involuntary step back toward the airlock bulkhead as he stepped closer, looming over her.

"I hope you and your Council friends are happy," he said very quietly, looking steadily down at her. "When you get to G-889, and every one of those children survives the coldsleep, I want you to ask yourself how many more you could have saved if you'd made the threshold two percent lower."

"Mr. Heiberg," someone said from the hatch. "How are you, sir?" It was Rick Hansen, and he stepped into the airlock and held out his hand as the big man turned to greet him.

"Hansen," Heiberg said, shaking Hansen's hand but looking uncomfortable. "I was very sorry to hear about your daughter. A very great loss."

"Thank you," Hansen said.

Heiberg glanced back over at Julia, and she braced herself, but he just nodded curtly and stepped out of the airlock.

Hansen looked at her, his face unreadable, and Julia found herself wondering if he'd heard what Heiberg said. _Please, don't you pile on, too._

"People don't like to be reminded that there's always somebody worse off than they are," Hansen said after a moment, and headed on into the ship.

Julia blinked, watching him go, then let out a sigh, and followed him on board.

* * *

"Excuse me, miss! Miss!" a man's voice called from behind Melanie. She turned, wondering if whoever it was was talking to her. "Hello," the faintly weasely-looking man said, "I'm Morgan Martin, Council Liaison to the Eden Project."

_What, do you want a medal?_ Melanie thought, recognizing his type immediately. _Always getting ahead by doing all the Council dirty work, and always lording their Council connections over the rest of us. I'll bet he practices that speech in the mirror._ "Melanie Wilson, comm officer," she said warily, glancing past Martin at the pretty woman behind him. Melanie thought she looked faintly embarrassed, and wondered if Martin was planning to introduce her, or just ignore her existence.

"A pleasure, Miss Wilson," Martin said, grabbing her hand and pumping it. "I'm wondering if you can help me. It's about our quarters."

"Your quarters?" Melanie said, placing a mental bet on "too small." He seemed too nervy to want a porthole.

"Well, you see, they're a bit…small," Martin said. "I was wondering if you might have something—"

"Oh, Mr. Martin!" someone said coming up behind Melanie. "If this is about your quarters, I must apologize." A man came around Melanie in the corridor and took Martin by the arm. He was a little taller than she was, and very thin, with a very prominent Adam's apple. "There was a mixup in the assignments, but we're trying to get it rectified right now. If you can just be patient a bit longer, we'll have it all worked out before we leave."

"Of course," Martin said, looking surprised and then smug. "You see, Bess? All we had to do was ask."

"Thank you," Bess said, smiling at the man.

He smiled and nodded. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to speak with Officer Wilson for a moment."

Martin looked slightly put out at being dismissed like that, but he turned and headed back down the corridor.

The man who'd rescued her turned to smile at her. "Hi, I'm Rob. Rob Anderson," he said, holding out his hand.

"Thank you, Rob," Melanie said fervently but quietly, glancing back at Martin's retreating figure as she shook Rob's hand.

"That won't keep him happy for long," Rob said, following her glance, "but hopefully he'll find someone else to badger. So you're our comm officer?"

Melanie tried to hold back a smile at the very transparent attempt to find something else to talk about. "Yes," she said gravely. "And you are?"

"I'm the Eden Project's hydraulic engineer. I'll be setting up the water treatment facilities for the colony. I love the title—'hydraulic engineer,'" he repeated dramatically. "It sounds a lot more impressive than plumber."

"Yes, yes it does," Melanie said, wondering how she could extricate herself from this situation. It was starting to look less and less like an improvement over Martin. _Oh, be nice_, she told herself. _He's kind of sweet, in a goofy sort of way. He needs better glasses, though._

"Hey, Rob!" a woman called from down the corridor, and Rob looked for a moment like he wanted to do her bodily harm.

"Helen," he said, gritting his teeth as she came up beside him and threw her arm over his shoulder.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?" she said, and another woman and a man came up next to her, crowding the narrow corridor.

"Melanie Wilson," she said, suddenly feeling sorry for Rob. "Comm officer."

"Helen Reeves," the woman said, smiling broadly. "And this is Toshiko Miyoshi and Bill Marshall. All of us with the Project, like Rob here," she added, patting Rob's shoulder.

"It's very nice to meet you," Melanie said. "Listen, I'm sorry, but I was on my way up to the cockpit, so if you'll excuse me…" She smiled at Rob. "Thanks again."

"It was my pleasure," Rob said gallantly, and Melanie made her escape.

"She's cute," Helen said after she'd gone.

"Helen, don't start with him," Toshiko said.

"She's right," Bill said. "She is cute."

"Who's cute?" Valerie Carter said, joining them.

"The dark-haired girl you just passed," Helen said. "Rob likes her."

"Oh, that's sweet!" Valerie said, batting her dark eyelashes at Rob.

"Someone throw me out an airlock right now," Rob said.

* * *

"Devon, I wish there were some way I could convince you to change your mind. There's still time," Blalock said on the monitor in her quarters. He was using that annoyingly whiny voice that always threatened to bring on a migraine.

"For god's sake, Dyson, how many times to we have to go through this?" Devon said impatiently. "It's not like you're suddenly going to convince me that the Syndrome is all in my head, that my son isn't dying, that it isn't living on the stations causing it. So why don't we assume that you've done your best to convince me one last time, and that it didn't work. Okay?"

Blalock looked annoyed, but relented. "Fine, Devon. Have it your way."

"Good," Devon said. "Now, do we have our clearance?"

"Everything through level five. We're still waiting on level six," Blalock said.

"We've been waiting," Devon said. "It's been six weeks, Dyson. We launch tomorrow morning!"

"Not without clearance, you don't," Blalock said, sounding like he was talking to a recalcitrant ten-year-old.

_Watch me_, Devon thought, fighting back the urge to climb through the monitor and strangle Blalock with her bare hands. "So why did you call, Dyson?" she said.

"GNN was after me to get a ship-side interview with you before you launch—if you launch," he added pointedly.

Devon sighed. She'd gotten good at interviews—she'd had to in order to get the funding for the Project. But now that they were almost on their way, the last thing she wanted to do was answer yet another idiotic question about her "crusade" from a reporter who thought she was a crackpot.

"Devon," Blalock said, a wheedling tone in his voice. "It's just one more, and then you'll never have to do one again."

"All right, all right," Devon said, holding up her hands in surrender. _I'd tapdance naked by the ship if it got me one step closer to getting that damned Level Six clearance._

"Good!" Blalock said, sounding far too pleased. "I'll make the arrangements."

* * *

"I understand this…small person…belongs to somebody here," a man said, coming into ESB Two. Heads popped up from behind panels all over the room, and Danziger sighed, knowing what was coming. He looked up to see Tru being held by the arm by a man who looked more amused than annoyed.

"Damn it, Tru," Danziger said, sounding more resigned than angry. "What'd you get into this time?"

"I just took a wrong turn—I thought I was in our cabin," she protested, trying to wriggle free from the man's grasp.

"Uh-huh," Danziger said skeptically. "Whatever she did, man, I'm sorry."

"No harm done," he said, handing Tru over. He held out his hand, grinning. "I'm Rick Hansen, handyman and fixer for the Eden Project."

"John Danziger," he said, shaking his hand while trying to keep hold of Tru. "About the same for this fine vessel. How'd you end up with this bunch?" he added curiously.

"Long story," Hansen said, and his tone wasn't nearly as light as it had been up to that point.

_Oh,_ Danziger thought uncomfortably. _I'll bet he's one of those Syndrome Parents._ "Well, listen, thanks for rounding up this wild thing."

"Don't be too hard on her," Rick said. "It's not like she was going to find anything cool in my quarters anyway." He smiled, and turned to go.

Tru looked defiantly up at her father, as though she were daring him to yell at her. He closed his eyes, counting slowly to ten. "Are you always this annoying?" he said finally.

"Most of the time," Tru said. "Sometimes I'm worse, though." She smiled sweetly. "You could always send me back to Station Services."

"God, this is going to be a long trip," Danziger said under his breath.

* * *

"I want to see the planet again," Ulysses Adair said, the faint wheeze of the oxygen concentrator fading momentarily into the background as the little boy spoke.

"Uly, we're working on history now," Yale said patiently. He tapped his dark finger on Uly's tablet.

"But Yale, we're making history," Uly said with a grin. "Why should I have to study it?"

Yale rolled his eyes. "You've been waiting to use that line all day, haven't you?"

"Of course! Come on," Uly said wheedlingly. "Just one more time."

Yale pressed a button on his arm interface, and the hologram of G-889 sprang into view, rotating slowly above his arm.

Uly looked at it appraisingly. "Someday, I'm going to climb that mountain," he said, pointing to a white-tipped mountain in the range just east of what would become New Pacifica. "It'll be cold that high, right?"

Yale nodded. "It's almost five thousand meters. It will be cold, and the air will be rather thin, though the oxygen concentration on G-889 is a bit higher than on Old Earth, so eventually," Yale said, wishing he believed it were true, "with the help of your concentrator, you may be able—"

"We have clothes for the cold, right?" Uly interrupted.

"Yes, Uly," Yale said patiently. "And within a few years, we'll be able to manufacture almost anything we'll need."

Uly frowned, still studying the planet. "What kind of animals are there here?" he said, pointing at the smaller, more southerly continent.

Yale shook his head. "We haven't surveyed that continent yet," he said. "We focused primarily on the larger continent, since that seemed to have the best sites for potential colonization."

"We need to name them," Uly said.

"What, the animals?" Yale said.

"No," Uly said, with "you idiot" implied so strongly it was almost audible. "The continents. We can't keep calling them 'the big one' or 'the little one.'"

"What should we call them?" Devon said, coming in. She was rubbing her temples, and Uly thought, _She's been talking to that Blalock guy again._

"Well, I thought about 'New America' for the big one," Uly said consideringly, "but that sounds kind of lame. So I'm still working on that. And I haven't even started on all those little islands. But I definitely think we should call the littler continent Atlantis."

"Atlantis," Devon said. "I like the sound of that."

"Yale was telling me that some geek wrote a story about Atlantis, and that's how we know about it," Uly said.

"Greek," Yale corrected. "His name was Plato. Atlantis is mentioned in the Timaeus and Critias dialogues."

"That's what I want you to read to me tonight," Uly said.

Devon looked at Yale, trying to suppress a smile. "You want me to read to you from Plato?" she said dubiously.

"Yes," Uly said impatiently, then coughed slightly.

Devon glanced sharply down at him, and noticed he was looking up at her to gauge her reaction. _You manipulative little creature_, she thought. "Fine," she said. "Plato it is. Can you call up the appropriate passages, Yale?"

"Certainly," Yale said, and the manuscript showed up on Devon's tablet.

"All right, tiger," Devon said, grabbing the tablet and herding her son towards his bunk. "I have a feeling you're going to be asleep fast tonight." She sat down next to the bunk as Uly climbed under the covers.

"'For it is related in our records,'" Devon began to read, "'how once upon a time your State stayed the course of a mighty host, which, starting from a distant point in the Atlantic ocean, was insolently advancing to attack the whole of Europe—"

"Big fire, Dev. Cockpit!" Commander O'Neill said over the comm.

Devon sighed, and Uly rolled his eyes at her. _Talk about insolent advances_, she thought. "Can't it wait, Commander?" she said plaintively, knowing full well that O'Neill wasn't the type to call her without good reason.

"Can't wait. I need you now." He didn't even bother to apologize before he commed off.

Devon sighed again. Getting used to the commander's abruptness had taken some doing, but he had come so highly recommended, Devon was willing to put up with it. _To a point._

"I know," Uly said before she could start. "You'll be right back. And I'll be asleep by then."

Devon winced. _Am I really that bad?_ she thought. "Sorry, kiddo. One of these days I'll be able to finish a story," Devon said, "I promise." Uly gave her a "tell me another one" look, and she kissed his forehead on her way out.

"Should I keep him up till you get back?" Yale whispered as she passed him.

Devon gave him a resigned look, and he smiled reassuringly. "He'll be fine," he said, patting her arm.

_I wish I could believe that_, Devon thought, heading for the cockpit. _But even if we're right, and he'll get better on G-889, I've missed so much of his life already._ She shook off the thought, knowing it would only lead to endless what-ifs. She would do everything possible to make it up to him once they landed.

The corridors on the way up to the cockpit were still bustling with people getting settled, even this late in the evening. Devon skidded to a stop as a bickering couple barreled across the corridor in front of her.

_The council liaison_, Devon reminded herself, recognizing him from the dozens of comm-link meetings she'd had to put up with to get the first five levels of clearance for her expedition. _Martin something_, she thought as the couple continued down the side corridor. "Why do I have to call her? She's your mother, Morgan!" the woman said with a hint of a genteel Station 5 drawl it sounded like she'd spent a lot of money trying to get rid of. "Besides, she hates me, she always has…"

Devon was once again grateful she'd ended her marriage. James had been bad enough to deal with once Uly started showing signs of the Syndrome, but his mother had been far worse. Devon shook her head, refusing to let herself dredge up those memories again, and actually found herself grateful for the distraction of whatever big fire O'Neill had for her. She strode into the cockpit and looked around to find him. He was back in the comm section talking to one of the techs—Melanie something, Devon reminded herself. "What's the big fire?" Devon said.

"You're gonna want to look at this," O'Neill said, and his tone was grim. "Mel picked this up off the internet." He nodded at Melanie, and she pulled up something on her screen. The header on it read, "GNN TRANSMISSION DIGITAL STORAGE."

"Ms. Adair's private expedition had been in the planning stages for six years," a woman's voice began as the screen went from snow to lines to a grainy picture of one of the newsnet talking heads, "despite virulent opposition from both medical and scientific fields." A picture of Devon came up on the screen. It was one of her least favorite, she noticed, the one where her hair looked almost orange instead of auburn because of the weird lighting the photographer had insisted on. And she wasn't smiling. _Which is exactly why the newsnets always use that one, _she thought._ It makes me look creepy._

"Storage? So it hasn't been released yet?" Devon asked Melanie. She nodded.

"Keep watching," O'Neill said.

"To repeat," the woman continued as the picture changed to an exterior shot of the colony ship, "the Eden Project, bound to set up the first colony in the G8 system met with disaster this morning, exploding upon departure. There were no survivors."

The screen went to snow again, and Devon turned to look at O'Neill, half-laughing. "What is this, some kind of joke?" she said.

"Government released, Adair, approved by three panels," O'Neill said, and his mustache was doing that quivering thing it did when he was really angry. Devon had seen it a lot, but never this bad.

"And nine hours before broadcast," Melanie added, and her voice sounded shaky. "I knew GNN was good, but getting the news before it happens?"

"Nine hours…" Devon said disbelievingly.

"An hour after we launch," O'Neill said.

"They—they've given up trying to stall us and now…what, they're just going to kill us?" Devon said, and felt her blood run cold. _I can't believe even the Council could do something that extreme,_ she thought, but there was a part of her that wasn't so sure.

"They're going to try," O'Neill said. "And I'm not surprised—if we make it out there, then they lose control. I'm going to run a resonance scan of the entire ship right now."

"You think there are explosives on board?" Devon asked, though she already knew there were. _The Council doesn't bluff—they don't need to. They always hold all the cards._

"You don't?" O'Neill said incredulously.

Devon looked at him, still trying to process the idea that her own government could be so cold-blooded. She turned, her hand to the back of her head, trying to think. She turned back to O'Neill. "We can not risk another delay," she said. "We have over 200 syndrome families on the colony ship prepping for cold-sleep right now."

"No delays," O'Neill said confidently. "We'll launch on schedule."

Melanie looked at him uneasily.

"No," Devon said, shaking her head at O'Neill, and there was determination in her eyes. "No, we need to launch now."

O'Neill looked at her for a long moment, then grinned wolfishly. He turned to the pilot. "Solace, what's our status?" he said.

"We're at zero minus eight and a half hours," Solace said dryly.

"You weren't hired to tell me the time, ace," O'Neill said impatiently.

"The door is standing wide open," Solace said, grinning. "I'd say they're expecting a freighter."

"Now you're talkin'!" O'Neill barked, slapping him on the shoulder. "Advise Colony, we are leaving! Wilson!"

"Yeah?" Melanie said nervously.

"Get a resonance crew moving!"

"Yes, sir!" she said, and the whole cockpit became a whirl of motion and voices as everyone began prepping the ship for departure.

Devon stood in the middle of it, her arms clasped in front of her_. Six years_, she thought, staring out at the spacedock through the front port. _Six years, and it comes down to this. Six years of fighting, arguing, losing friends, losing my husband—it can't come down to them just blowing us up. It isn't fair!_

She stopped cold. _James._ She whirled, grabbing for her comm pickup, and raced out into the corridor. "Comm central, James Garrigan, station four, level 3."

"Connecting," the computer voice said. Seconds later, James answered the comm, right as O'Neill barreled past her down the corridor.

"Jesus, Devon! It's after eleven!"

"I know, James, I'm sorry—"

"Like hell you are," he growled. "Look, I am not going to be part of your little crusade, don't you get it? I've moved on. I have a family—"

"They're going to tell you we're dead," Devon broke in.

"What?" James said, baffled by the non-sequitur.

"They're going to say we blew up," Devon said deliberately, "but it's a lie, James. I—"

There was a squeal of feedback through the earpiece and the commlink went dead. Devon's blood ran cold. _They're monitoring our communications. Which means they know that we know. God, I'm an idiot!_ She turned and raced back into the cockpit. "Tell O'Neill to hurry," she said to Melanie. "They know."

Melanie went white, then nodded.

"Don't worry, Adair," Solace said laconically from the pilot's chair. "They won't blow us up till we're out of the spacedock. That stuff's expensive, y'know," he added, waving airily at the port.

_I hope you're right_, Devon thought, but wasn't at all sure he was. _If the Council was willing to blow up 200 families, what's one spacedock?_

* * *

"Danziger!"

There was a clank from the service tube. "OW!" a rough voice yelled. "Damn it, Craft!"

"Shut up, Danziger, and get your ass down here now! We've got a problem!"

"If it's Tru again…" Danziger growled under his breath as he lowered himself down, rubbing the back of his head. The other mechs were all clustered by the monitor. Danziger joined them.

"The resonance scan came up with 97 non-registered items," O'Neill was saying. "We need a physical scan of all specified areas immediately. If there's a firecracker on board, I want to know about it yesterday."

"We're already moving," Danziger said disbelievingly. "How fast are we supposed to do an explosives check?"

"How fast are you willing to move to save your butt?" O'Neill said, and the comm went dead.

"The man has a point," Danziger said, looking sidelong at Craft. "Let's go."

* * *

Julia studied the diagnostic readout on the 60th coldsleep chamber that day. Her neck hurt from bending to read the lower bunks. Jeff Sawyer, the coldsleep tech, looked about as exhausted as she felt.

Sawyer had been great to work with, though. His good humor through the whole ordeal had definitely made the work easier to take. They made quite a pair—coldsleep techs were the subject of superstition on most sleep-ships, so they tended to be ostracized, to the point that traditionally they were assigned the cabin in the rear of the ship. _And I certainly know about ostracism,_ she thought grimly, thinking back to her encounter with Heiberg and Hansen.

"All readings within normal parameters," she said for the 60th time, and felt like giving a cheer.

"Finally. I always forget what a royal pain in the—" Jeff started to say, then looked up alertly.

"What?" Julia said.

"We're moving," he said.

"Moving?" Julia echoed. "But we're not supposed to leave till—" She was cut off by a couple of mechs barreling down the corridor. One of them clipped her shoulder, mumbled an apology over his shoulder, but kept on running.

"What the hell is going on?" Jeff said, frowning at her.

Julia shrugged helplessly.

Another mech, a tall, well-built man with shoulder-length curly brown hair, was coming down the corridor. "Hey, Danziger," Jeff said. "What's up?"

"Bomb scare. We're doing a full ship scan," he said, and his deep voice seemed somehow appropriate for the gravity of his statement.

Julia froze as the gravity of the statement finally sank in. "A bomb?" she said.

"So we're launching now," Jeff said musingly. "Good. Don't want to give those Council pricks any more of a shot at us than they already have."

"Excuse me," Julia said quietly, and walked back toward the med lab.

"What was that about?" Danziger asked.

"I don't know, but she sure looked pissed off," Jeff said, frowning after her, then turning quickly to finalize the last coldsleep diagnostic.

Julia closed the door to med lab behind her and leaned against it for an instant. _It has to be the Council_, she thought. _But she couldn't have known—she's not so cold she wouldn't have warned me,_ Julia thought, and then found herself wondering. Her lips tightened, and she walked over to her comm console. "Comm central. Miriam Heller, Station 1, Level 1," she said.

"Connecting," the computer voice said. There was a long pause, and then her mother appeared, but it was just an automated message.

"Hello, you've reached Council Member Miriam Heller. I won't be available for some time. If you need immediate assistance, please contact Arvin Peterson…"

Julia didn't even hear the rest. Inwardly she was seething. _If she knew_, she thought, and shook her head disbelievingly.

The message came to an end, and the recorder beeped its prompt. "I swear to god, Mother, if you knew anything—anything—about this bomb, I will never forgive you," Julia said coldly, and severed the connection.

She sat there at the console for a long moment, trying to get her brain to stop circling around the idea that her own mother could have condemned her to death. _And not just me_, Julia thought sickly, _all the other people on these ships. All those children!_

* * *

"Hospital ward reports all 248 syndrome children are secured," the pilot of the colony ship reported by comm to the pilot's station.

"Brace yourself, Sheila. We're just about to kiss you here," Solace said, guiding the advance ship towards the docking clamp of the colony ship.

"Initial contact…" Sheila said, and there was the faint vibration of docking. "We have linkup. Smooth as always, Mr. Solace," Sheila said. Solace smiled. Sheila was almost as old as he was, though with less time in coldsleep, but she still loved to flirt. _And she still looks good enough to flirt with_, Solace thought.

"Eden Advance, this is Port Control 1-9, please advise," the PC tech said over the comm. "We're showing a no-go—"

"Just stretching our legs, one-nine," O'Neill broke in smoothly, "getting into position for mañana."

The PC tech looked concerned, but commed off.

O'Neill glanced over at Solace, who shrugged. _Yeah_, O'Neill thought. _I just bought us all of thirty seconds. This is gonna be close._

"What the—?" a voice came from the corridor, and Morgan Martin came in, looking confused. "What's going on here?"

"You're our council liaison," O'Neill said, getting dangerously close to the bureaucrat. "Why don't you tell us?"

"What's he talking about?" Martin said to Melanie, backing away from the commander. "Who authorized our departure? We don't have a level six clearance yet!"

"Eden ship," the PC tech said over the comm, and now she sounded pissed off. "You are in violation of port orders—"

"Will someone come and talk to these nice folks, please?" Solace said over her.

"Since you're still on board, Mr. Martin," Devon said, coming up from behind him, "I assume you have no idea what your friends on level six have planned for us tomorrow."

"Well, they're releasing us to planet G-889," he said, looking at her like she was being particularly stupid.

"Guess again," Devon said acidly.

"Are you out of your mind, Solace?" the PC tech's supervisor said over the comm. "You're not one of these lunatics! Redock before they take your—"

"You wanna pay my freight, one-nine?" Solace interrupted. "I kinda doubt you can match these people's credit weight. Besides, I don't find it all that sexy when people threaten to blow me up. At least not in this context." The supervisor looked stunned, and Solace wondered whether it was the double-entendre or the bomb threat that did it.

"Eden Advance," the PC tech broke in. "We still show no-go. Return to dock facility. Repeat, we will contact port authority."

_Aw, hell, screw this,_ O'Neill thought. "Feel free to contact whoever you damned well please," he snapped, and the PC tech looked stunned. "We're makin' a run for it." He stalked out of the cockpit as the ship's computer said in its mellifluous voice, "Bay two portal doors are now closing."

"Tell me something I don't know, sweetheart," Solace said.

* * *

"If you could just tell me what you're looking for, you know, maybe I could help you," Bess Martin said graciously.

"Ma'am, what is this?" one of the mechs said, pointing at one of her cases.

"It's…it's my husband's," she said.

"Opening check number 19," the other mech said, then blushed as he saw his partner pull out something small and lacy.

"The case is his," Bess said, her lips pursed, and she grabbed the lacy thing out of his hands, "but sir, the contents are mine."

"Passenger quarters sector three, clear," the mech reported, carefully looking away from the case.

* * *

"Those doors won't reverse, Solace," the dock supervisor said. "And we're shutting down APEX guidance. When was the last time you piloted manual? You breach that hull, and we'll have a helluva mess on our hands."

Devon looked over at him uneasily, hoping he was really as good as O'Neill seemed to think he was.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, one-nine," Solace said, looking coolly out the port. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Okay," O'Neill said. "Now is the time. If you're as good as you say you are, show me."

"Mel, I need verbal marker position right now," Solace called across the cockpit.

Melanie turned to look at him from her station. "You're going to start the launch tube without APEX?" she said disbelievingly, then looked uneasily back at O'Neill.

"Just follow my marks," Solace said confidently.

"Okay," Melanie uneasily.

"Retros at fifty percent," Solace called out.

"Check," Melanie answered.

"Where are we going, Devon?" Blalock said from the rear comm station. Devon sighed. _I knew I wouldn't get out of here without having to talk to him again, damn it._ She got up from her chair by the pilot and made her way back to the comm as Solace went down his checklist with Melanie.

"Well, well, well," Blalock said as Devon came up. "Look at all this activity."

"Uh, Mr. Blalock," Martin said, stepping in front of Devon, straightening his tie as he did. "Sir, Morgan Martin, level four. I just wanted you to realize that I in no way sanctioned this—"

O'Neill shoved him out of the way. "Blalock," he said sweetly. "Go back to sleep, you're just having a bad dream."

Blalock glared at him, then yawned. "You have a scheduled departure in…eight hours, Devon," he said, smiling at her. "Movement like this could put your clearance at risk." He raised his eyebrows at her.

_God, I hate that smarmy son-of-a-bitch_, Devon thought coldly.

"All those years of planning, Devon," he continued. "All those obstacles?"

"Three degrees…mark," Solace called behind them.

"Mark," Melanie repeated.

"I know we've been difficult," Blalock said, "but now, eight hours to go, and this final insubordinate act…" He threw his hands in the air.

"Let's just say that after all the years of clearance stalls," Devon finally said, "I've grown just a…tad…antsy."

Blalock barked a laugh. "Devon," he sighed, "everything we've done has been for your benefit, to protect you from the unknown."

"Oh, come on, Dyson, you've seen the probe info. The planet has a habitability rating of eighty-three."

"No human has ever been as far as G-889, Devon," Blalock said placatingly. "Personally, I…"

Devon missed the next few words as she glanced over at one of the mechs, who was scanning one of the instrument panels. Then O'Neill's voice came over the intraship comm. "Keep him on there, Adair, keep him talking." _Oh, great_, Devon thought. _Six years of wishing this guy would shut up, and __now__ I have to keep him talking._

He was looking appraisingly at her over the rim of his coffee cup, and she reminded herself that he wasn't the idiot he tried to make himself out to be. "Humans are meant to be explorers, Dyson," she said, and launched into one of her fundraising speeches. "It's been three generations since we had to abandon Earth, and the syndrome children are already dying. In another two generations, we may all be extinct. Station life is toxic, and unless we start colonizing habitable worlds—"

There was an alarm squeal behind her, and she sensed the flurry of movement.

"Devon," Blalock said seriously, "no one is more sorry than I am that your little boy is sick. It is sad when children die."

Devon tried to look like she was paying attention, but she could see the mech out of the corner of her eye. He was removing one of the monitors, one which was, ironically enough, displaying Blalock's bravura performance.

"People have always died," Blalock said. "It doesn't mean we have to run away from all we know. Years of work, Devon…" she heard him say, then lost interest entirely when the mech tilted the monitor forward, and there was a bomb on the back that looked like every grade-B VR bomb she'd ever seen, even down to the old-school digital readout, ticking down the seconds. _At least it's a timer_, she thought, and felt a momentary relief. _Don't get cocky, Adair_, she told herself. _They aren't stupid enough to rely on a timer alone._

"Oh, my god," she heard Martin whisper behind her. "They're gonna kill us!"

Devon wrenched her attention back to Blalock. "What's the point, Dyson?" she said, hoping to keep him from hearing Martin or seeing O'Neill and the mech taking the bomb out of the cockpit. "I thought we had clearance."

"Everything but level six, Devon," Blalock said reasonably. "You know that." He smiled.

"You nailed it, 'Zo!" Melanie said behind her, and she sounded amazed. "Dead center!"

"Rate up to seven! I want speed, now!" Solace said.

"Devon," Blalock said, and for the first time since she'd known him, he'd lost the phony attitude. He was dead serious. "You know as well as I do, there are people who do not want you to succeed."

"Keep him cool, Adair!" O'Neill said over the comm. "We need some time!" He cleared the way for Danziger, who lumbered past him with the heavy monitor in his hands. It was still showing Blalock's charming face. O'Neill followed, right on Danziger's heels, moving remarkably fast for such a chunky frame.

"I know who they are," Blalock said. "You are playing right into their hands."

"Two little ships, Dyson," Devon said quietly. "A handful of unwanted, whispered about families. Most people would think of this as a cleansing." _Just let us __go_, she thought desperately.

"We're so close," Melanie whispered behind her. "Just a few more meters, and we're clear!"

"Come on, baby," Solace murmured. "Move your sweet ass."

"If it were up to me," Blalock said reasonably, "I'd have let you leave long ago. This is a difficult situation, rife with internal politics!" His tone was rising—it was clear he was getting nervous. _But not nervous enough to miss using a term like "rife,"_ Devon thought, and almost giggled. "Come on, Devon," he continued. "You have to understand how difficult this has been for me."

_You bastard_, Devon thought. _Like you'd lose any sleep over this._ "Difficult?" she snapped, then tried to control herself. "No syndrome child has lived beyond nine years," Devon said evenly. "My son is eight. I will not watch him die."

Blalock looked grim.

"Bay two portal doors are clear," the ship's computer announced.

Solace and Melanie both let out sighs of relief. "Yeah, baby," Solace said. "Bite me, one-nine!"

"Give us a few more months, a few more weeks, to establish the habitability of G-889 for certain," Blalock said. "Do not leave station space, for your own good."

"Why, Dyson?" Devon said, stepping close to the monitor. "Are you trying to tell me something? Are you saying I'm at risk?" _Come on_, she thought. _At least have the balls to tell me they're trying to kill us!_

"Devon, you're at risk any time you're out there without us!" Blalock said incredulously. "I can't protect you."

"We're clear!" O'Neill said over the comm.

"Trust me, Devon," Blalock said. "I'm trying to help you here, I am trying to be a friend."

"One thing I've learned, Dyson," Devon said. "I'm all out of friends." She reached for the cutoff.

"Don't go off line!" Blalock shouted, but she'd already cut him off.

There was a blinding flash from the port, and Devon turned to see the fading light from the explosion. She smiled coldly, wishing it had really been Blalock and not just his image that had blown up. "How long before they realize they didn't get us?" Devon asked O'Neill over the comm.

"Oh, I'd say they know already," he said. "Nah, we're already dead to them, Dev. They're probably firing up that newscast as we speak. We're on our own now. No turning back."

"Scanners show no station activity," Melanie said, sounding vastly relieved.

"They're not coming after us," Martin said to Devon, and he sounded almost disappointed. He looked like he was about to faint. He shook his head wordlessly at her for a moment, then made his way past her out of the cockpit.

"Just get us out of here," Devon said to Solace, who was looking like he'd just realized how serious the situation really was.

* * *

There was a bright flash out the tiny porthole. Julia turned to see the momentary afterglow of what had been a major explosion. _Thank heavens for small favors_, she thought. _At least I'm not about to blow up any more_, but the thought was surprisingly small comfort.

The door chimed, and Julia jumped. The door slid open, and Jeff poked his head in the door. "Hey, Doc, you okay?"

"Yes," Julia said, nodding, hoping he wouldn't look too closely.

Jeff seemed at a loss. "I just—well, you seemed upset, and…" he trailed off uncertainly.

"I'm fine, Jeff," she said, forcing a smile. "It's just a little unnerving that somebody wants to blow us up."

"Everything's fine," Jeff said quickly. "Danziger found the bomb and got it off before it blew, so..."

_But what else have they done?_ Julia thought sickly. She wouldn't put it past them to have a backup plan. "I know, I saw the flash. Look, Jeff," she continued uneasily, "I hate to ask, but could we run a check on the secondary systems again?"

His face went white. "You don't think—" he began, then shook his head. "What am I saying. Of course you do, and you're right. Sure, I'll do it right away."

"I don't think you need to do it now," Julia said, knowing he was as tired as she was, and she wanted him alert when he did the checks. "We'll hit it first thing in the morning. Even launching now, we'll still have plenty of time before we need to put everybody to bed."

Jeff grinned at her. "You should get some sleep, too, Doc."

Julia nodded. "I have a few things I need to do first," she said, hoping he'd get the hint.

He did. "Right, then. I'll be off to my dungeon. I'll let you know as soon as I'm done with the check." He smiled, then turned and left.

Julia turned to her console, still trying to process what had happened. _A bomb_, she thought. _Well, Jeff is certainly right about leaving now being the smart thing to—_

She stopped cold. _We're leaving __now_, she thought. "Vasquez!" she breathed. She called up the airlock log on her console, and it confirmed her worst fear. Not only had he not come back on board the advance ship, but there was no record of his ever having boarded the colony ship. "That bastard!" she said out loud, suddenly realizing exactly why the chief medical officer wasn't at his station. _He knew! He knew and he abandoned us._ There were three other doctors on the colony ship, but without Vasquez, it was only her on the advance ship.

The weight of responsibility was suddenly overwhelming. _Two years_, she thought, her heart pounding. _I'll be completely on my own for two years._

_And there's not a damned thing you can do about it_, she told herself resolutely. _Whatever happens in the next two years, you need to get through the next forty-eight hours first._ She groaned mentally at the thought. If the coldsleep checks had been bad, it was only going to get worse. Her workload had been daunting even with Vasquez picking up some of the work. _As little as possible_, she thought disgustedly, wishing every plague she could think of would come down on his head, wherever he was.

She sighed, turned back to her console, and started trying to come up with some way to get everything done.

* * *

"O'Neill," Danziger said over the comm. "The rest of the ship is clean. If they're gonna do something else, is isn't gonna be blowing us up."

"I feel much better," O'Neill said dryly, looking around the cockpit. "I like variety in my death threats. Which brings me to my next request."

"Yeah, yeah," Danziger said. "I'll have my guys check every system. If there's something wrong with anything on this ship, we'll know before we go into coldsleep."

"So now what?" Devon said, coming up to stand next to O'Neill.

He shrugged. "We proceed just like we would have if we'd launched normally. I may hold off on everybody going into cryo until we're certain everything's okay."

"Wait," Devon said nervously. "What about the cryo systems?"

"Sawyer and Heller are already on it. They'd just finished the check of the primary systems when we found the bomb. Everything came up clean. Sawyer's going to run another check of the secondary systems. First thing in the morning," he added, pointedly looking up at the chronometer on the central console. "Sorry, Dev. I'll bet Uly's already asleep. Why don't you go on, too?"

Devon almost laughed. "Do you really think I could sleep with this much adrenaline running through me?"

"You'd be surprised," O'Neill said, and he sounded like the voice of experience. "Go on. Give it a try. The ship will still be here when you wake up."

"It better be," Devon said, "or I'll hold you accountable."

O'Neill grinned.

* * *

"Excuse me," Yale said early the next morning, opening the door to the med lab. A young woman had her head on her arms on the desk beside the console. It didn't look comfortable. "Excuse me?" Yale repeated.

The woman jolted upright, blinking, and Yale recognized her face from his files. _Dr. Julia Heller, junior member of the medical team_.

"I'm very sorry to disturb you," Yale said. "You are Dr. Heller, is that correct?"

"Yes," she said, still trying to wake up. Her neck hurt, and she rubbed at it absently.

"I was looking for Dr. Vasquez," Yale said.

Julia finally recognized the cultured accent they gave to the cyborg units so people would recognize them. Then she realized what he'd just asked, and shook her head slowly. "He's not on board," she said.

"Not on—?" Yale said, his eyes widening. "Then—"

Julia ran her hand through her hair tiredly. "That's right," she said. "If you need a doctor, I'm the only game in town."

"Oh, dear," Yale said, and Julia would have sworn his dark face lightened a shade.

_Oh, come on, it's not that bad,_ she thought. "Better than no doctor at all," she said, smiling wryly.

"Please forgive me," Yale said quickly. "I did not mean to imply that you were in any way inadequate."

"It's all right," Julia said. "It's not anything I haven't been thinking all night." _I shouldn't have said that_, she thought immediately. _God, I need some coffee._

"I am well aware of your qualifications, Doctor," Yale said gravely. "You are far more than adequate."

Julia smiled at him without irony this time. "Thank you. You're Yale, Ulysses Adair's tutor, right?"

"Indeed," he said. "I came to speak to Dr. Vasquez about Ulysses. I believe he had planned to keep Ulysses under observation for some time before cold sleep."

Julia nodded. "We need to monitor his vitals for at least 24 hours," she said. "I had planned to come up at—" She broke off, noticing the time. "Oh, no." She stood up quickly, grabbing her tablet and diaglove off the desk. "I'm very sorry, I overslept—"

Yale put up his hands. "Please, don't worry. I can only imagine what you've had to deal with since yesterday. It has been a difficult time for all of us." He paused. "May I suggest that you…take a moment for yourself before you come up to look after Ulysses. Devon will want to be there, and…" He stopped, looking embarrassed, and something about his manner made Julia glance at her reflection in the monitor on the desk.

She blushed. "Thank you, Yale," she said. "I'll be up in a few minutes." Yale nodded and left.

Julia sighed. _Thank god he stopped me from going up there looking like this,_ she thought. _Adair can't stand me as it is_. She took the time to pull her hair back up, splashed some water on her face at the sink, started out, then stopped. She grabbed her bag from underneath her desk and pulled out her makeup. _If you can't impress her with your years of experience,_ she thought, _the least you can do is __look__ competent._

* * *

"Yale," Devon said, coming down the corridor by their quarters, "where's Dr. Vasquez? I can't get him on gear, and he should be prepping Uly right now."

"Devon," Yale said evenly, "Vasquez is not on board."

"What?"

"Apparently he went to make a final check on the children of the colony," Yale said.

"But we had boarded for departure! Nobody was supposed to disembark without proper—" She trailed off, looking horrified. "Oh, my god. We have no doctor, Yale!"

"Dr. Heller is on board," Yale said.

"Dr. Heller? Oh, come on! She's the most junior member of his team. Hell, between her inexperience and her Council connections, I wouldn't have hired her at all if Dr. Harrison hadn't recommended her so—!" Yale was looking over her shoulder, his eyes wide. _Shit_, Devon thought, closing her eyes and mentally kicking herself. _She's right behind me._

"Dr. Heller has come to prep Uly for cold sleep," Yale said as though nothing at all was wrong, but he was giving her a sidelong look.

Devon turned around, and Dr. Heller was there, looking impossibly young in her physician's coat. She also looked like she'd just stepped out of an ad for one of those cosmetic adjustment clinics, her light brown hair up in one of those complicated Moebius strip up-dos Devon had never been able to master. She was a little shorter than Devon, but Devon doubted that was why her chin was tilted up. Certainly the defiant look in her eyes was unmistakable.

"I should monitor him for twenty-four hours before the rest of us go down for hibernation," she said, following Yale's lead and acting as though she hadn't heard a thing. Devon was surprised at how low her speaking voice was—she'd been expecting… _What? Some prepubescent little girl?_ She was even more embarrassed that in all the months Heller had been working for the Project, Devon had never once spoken to her directly. Devon shook herself, realizing Heller was still waiting for a response.

"I agree," Devon said, feeling like an idiot. Heller released a breath, and Devon felt even worse. _It's not her fault Vasquez is a coward,_ she thought bitterly. "Then, uh, you should get started."

Heller nodded, started to turn, then turned back. "I assume Dr. Vasquez," and Devon caught a hint of contempt in her voice when she said his name, "has…explained the risks a child like Ulysses faces going into coldsleep," she said steadily, "even under optimum conditions."

"I'm well aware of the risks," Devon said, and wished she'd been able to keep the brittle edge out of her voice. She knew Heller had given the same speech to hundreds of families in the last year, and it couldn't have been easy for her, especially when she had to tell so many of them the risk was too high to allow them to come. _But I can't stop now,_ she thought. _If Uly and I don't leave, the Council will just find some other way to kill us both._ "But we don't have very much choice, now, do we?"

She turned and walked away, and heard Heller behind her say quietly in that beautifully modulated voice, "No, we don't."

* * *

"So you can tell everyone from mechanical to the kitchen crew," O'Neill said, stalking into the cockpit with Danziger at his heels, "we stick to the original contract. Transport to and deposit on planet."

"I'm not askin' for the crew," Danziger said. "I'm askin' for myself. The contract said nothing about bomb scans or leavin' under a no-go! Look, even after I drop you off, I still gotta come back here and do business with that port."

"Okay, let's see," O'Neill said thoughtfully. "Twenty-two light years each way. How many administrations you think that'll be?"

"Just tell everyone hazard pay clause has been invoked," Devon said, coming into the cockpit. "Thank you," she added.

"Good," Danziger said, mollified. "That's all I wanted to know." He nodded his thanks at Devon, and turned to go.

"Sorry," Devon said after he'd left.

"Hey, it's your money," O'Neill said dryly. He winked at her to soften his words. "It's a good call, Dev."

Devon thanked the powers that be once again for having brought her Brian O'Neill. Their working relationship had started rocky, but since then had grown into a solid partnership. _And he's turning into a good friend_, Devon thought, realizing that her words to Blalock had been completely wrong.

"We're about to shove off from the colony ship," O'Neill was saying. "You want to watch?"

Devon smiled. "Sure," she said.

"There you go, Sheila," Solace was saying. "See you when you get back."

"48 years is a long time to wait to see you again, Solace," she said with a smile.

"Get a room, you two," O'Neill said. "Tell Abrams that we'll have dinner waiting for you when you get to G-889. Along with a fully operational base. Heck, with two years head start, we might even have some new little G-889ers running around."

"That's a roger," Sheila said. "Don't you let him fool you, Adair. He's got his eye on that pretty redhead techie. You're gonna have to keep an eye on him."

Devon rolled her eyes. "And he's gonna have to develop some new moves if he wants Valerie," she said dryly.

Shelia laughed. "Sleep well, Solace. Dream some sweet dreams of me…" She winked.

"I wish I could, baby," Solace said sadly after she'd commed off.

* * *

Julia shook her head, sitting down at her console. The day had started bad, and had only gotten worse. She had felt like she was flying from one crisis to another all day. And she hadn't been able to keep from replaying her conversation with Devon Adair in her head over and over, the same way she was doing now.

_Why on earth did Dr. Harrison recommend me?_ she thought. _The man __fired__ me, for god's sake!_ Unless there had been some reason for the firing that she didn't know about. _But what?_

_You're never going to know the answer to that,_ she thought with a fresh jolt of pain, remembering the news of Harrison's death late last year. It had been a terrible shock, even worse than his firing her had been. She had adored him—he'd been more than just a mentor to her, he'd very nearly been a father figure. And she'd felt like the work she'd been doing with him on the Syndrome had real potential. But he'd fired her, and then, barely a year later, he was dead.

She stared blindly at her console for a long time, remembering the devastation she'd felt at the time. And now, to know that he'd been part of getting her this job—it was painful and wonderful at the same time. _At least now I know he thought highly of me, in spite of the evidence to the contrary,_ she thought. _I should thank Devon for that._

Julia laughed at the thought. _Like I'm going to let her know I overheard her. Things are already awkward enough between us without adding that to the equation._

Julia turned to her console to pull up some of the patient files she hadn't been able to get to yet and noticed a message icon on her console. She frowned. _Who on earth would be leaving me a message? It's not like anybody's going to miss me,_ she thought bitterly, but hit the play button anyway.

"Julia, please answer," her mother said, and she looked and sounded almost desperate, a word Julia never would have associated with her mother. "Please! Okay, look, if you get—when you get this message," she said, "you have to get off that ship. I don't know how, but you need to get off before they leave. I—" she stopped, and looked off camera. "I have to go. Please—I know we…we haven't—" She looked off camera again and gestured impatiently at someone. "I just want you to know that I love you," she said in a rush, and for a moment, it looked to Julia like she was actually blinking back tears. "I always have." The message ended, and the date and time scrolled across the screen.

Julia stared at the screen, stunned. _Who are you and what have you done with my mother?_ she thought, and almost laughed. _Four years_, she thought. _We haven't spoken in four __years_,_ and suddenly she loves me?_ Julia found it hard to believe, but she'd learned long ago that trying to divine her mother's motives was an exercise in futility.

One thing was certain, though. This confirmed her initial suspicion that the Council, and by extension her mother, had been involved in the bombing. _But if she wanted me off the ship, _she thought, _her timing is terrible._ But that annoying part of her mind that always wanted to think the best of her mother pointed out that she couldn't have known that Eden Advance would find out about the bomb. She checked the time stamp on the message. 06:13. _Just after Yale woke me up, _she thought. _And two hours before our scheduled departure time._

That thought suddenly sparked another, even more shocking thought. _She had to know I'd never leave the ship, not after a crystal clear warning like that, _she thought. _She had to have known that I'd tell everyone. That's why she looked so nervous, _Julia thought, amazed. _She knew that would get her into trouble with the Council. And she was running as soon as she commed off. But where could she go that the Council won't get to her?_

_It doesn't matter,_ she told herself. _Wherever it is, you're going to be 22 light years away anyway. There's nothing you can do._ And suddenly, and completely unexpectedly, she found tears welling in her eyes.

* * *

"Come on, Rob, go talk to her," Valerie Carter said. "Bill thinks she's cute, I think she's cute, you think she's cute. Besides, what have you got to lose?"

"Will you guys stop obsessing about my love-life—or lack thereof?" Rob said plaintively from his bunk.

"I told you he wouldn't do it," Helen said from the doorway, her voice muffled by the towel she was using to dry her spiky blonde hair.

"I don't blame him," Toshiko said. "It's not like they have a future together—he's coming with us, and she'll be leaving with the ship."

"Who said anything about them needing a future?" Bill said from his bunk, grinning. "Actually, this is just about the most perfect setup for a one night stand I've ever seen."

"He's right," Valerie said wonderingly. "I hadn't thought of that. No accidentally running into them in a bar when you're with your new girlfriend, no drunk comms on a Friday night—you truly never, ever have to see them again." She headed for the door, flipping her long, unnaturally red hair back over her shoulder.

"Somebody warn the mechs!" Bill said. "Valerie's on the prowl!"

"I'd make my move now if I were you, Rob," Helen said. "That comm tech is more Valerie's type than the mechs, if you know what I mean."

Toshiko looked annoyed. "You guys are awful. You should leave both of them alone. Melanie Wilson seems like a very nice—"

"You are so adorable, Tosh," Helen said, draping her towel around her neck. She reached over and pinched Toshiko's cheek. "Some nice young man is going to want to take you home to his mother someday, and they'll feed you milk and cookies."

Toshiko glared at her.

* * *

"I will pay you fifty credits if you put my dad into coldsleep before me," a young girl with light brown hair pulled back in a ponytail said at the door to Julia's lab.

Julia turned to her and frowned. "Excuse me?" she said.

"Fifty credits. Just put him in coldsleep first, and I'll take care of the rest," she said.

"Um…who are you?" Julia asked, embarrassed that she didn't know off the top of her head—there couldn't be that many eleven-year-olds on board. But she still hadn't had time to go through all the crew and Project member medical files. _Damn you, Vasquez_, she said internally.

"Tru Danziger," the girl said, coming in and holding out her hand.

Julia shook it, still trying to figure out what on earth the girl was talking about.

"Look, here's the deal," Tru said. "I don't want to be here. My dad doesn't want me to be here, and I'm of no use to anybody else on board. But I have friends back on the station who'll be 44 years older than me by the time we get back. You see my problem?"

Julia nodded warily.

"So if you make sure my dad goes into coldsleep first—I don't know what kind of excuse you can make, but you'll come up with something—and then I can take one of the escape pods, head back to the stations, and you all can be on your way." She finished, looking pleased with herself.

Julia took a deep breath.

"I'll go up to seventy-five," Tru said, her eyes narrowing.

"I can't," Julia said. "Even if I were okay with you taking off on your own like that, which I'm not, there's the matter of the escape pods. We have six. Each holds ten people. We have a complement of 60 on board. Do the math." _Not to mention what Danziger would do to me once we wake up. He doesn't look like the kind of man I want to cross._

"I hate math," Tru said. "Besides, it's not like you're gonna need the escape pods for anything! This is a milk run!"

"How many milk runs start with a bomb?" Julia said. "Besides, we're already pretty far out from the stations. There's no guarantee that they'd pick you up." Julia hesitated, wondering how far to go with Tru, and decided that she'd better throw it all at her, or she might still try to take the escape pod on her own. "And since the pod would be from our ship, there's a very good chance they'd just let you float on out into space. Or blow you up."

Tru looked skeptical. "You're making that up," she said.

"I wish I were," Julia said, and meant every word. She looked at Tru appraisingly for a long moment. "Here, let me show you something." She called up her mother's last message to her and played it for Tru.

Tru's eyes widened. "That's your mom?" she said, looking sidelong at Julia and seeing the obvious resemblance.

"Yeah, and since we haven't spoken in four years, her saying that means she pretty much thought I was going to die," Julia said. "So think it through—if the Council wanted everybody on this ship dead, what do you think they'd do if you showed up in one of our escape pods—throw you a parade?"

Tru looked annoyed. "So I'm stuck here?"

"You could always join the Eden Project," Julia said.

Tru wrinkled her nose. "Sick kids and dirt. Not exactly what I'm looking for."

"Well, look at it this way," Julia said. "A lot can happen in 44 years. You might like the stations even better when you get back."

Tru snorted. "Yeah, right." She sighed. "Okay, so I'm stuck here. You don't have to tell anyone about this conversation, right?"

Julia looked at her, her eyes narrowed. "Somehow I don't think I can trust you not to try the escape pod thing anyway," she said.

Tru looked at her a long time. "Okay, okay, twenty credits," she said finally. "Just to keep your mouth shut."

"Tru, I'm going to G-889 for the rest of my life. What am I going to do with twenty credits—buy dirt or sick kids?" Julia said dryly.

Tru looked shocked. "I hadn't thought of that," she said.

"So I'm going to tell the comm tech," Julia said. "I'm going to make sure she keeps an eye on the escape pods, and if anybody goes in one without authorization, she's going to lock it down. But—" she said over Tru's protests, "I won't tell your father unless you try something."

Tru bit her lip. "All right, fair enough."

Julia watched her go, shaking her head. _There goes one of the many reasons I never planned to have children_, she thought wryly. _And yet I signed on to an expedition with over 200 of them. I must be crazy._

* * *

It took almost eight hours to get everyone into coldsleep. Devon had to wait until the last round because Uly's lung function had dropped slightly overnight. It seemed fine this morning, but Julia had decided it would be better to wait to be sure. Julia pulled her attention back to her 46th patient, Toshiko Miyoshi. Lying there with her dark hair like a halo around her head, she looked even more angelic than usual. _Which is saying something_, Julia thought.

"Listen," Toshiko said before Julia could give her the injection. "I need a favor. I need you to bring me out before you do Devon and Uly."

"Okay," Julia said slowly, wondering why.

"It's just—" Toshiko faltered. "If anything happens to Uly, she's going to need all the support she can get."

"Toshiko—" Julia started to say.

"It would just be so unfair," Toshiko continued, blinking back tears, "after everything, to lose him like that."

"It won't happen," Julia said forcefully. "I will not let that happen."

Toshiko nodded. "I know," she said. "I do trust you, Julia."

"At least somebody does," Julia said under her breath, looking away.

Toshiko looked at her sympathetically. "Look, I know you think she doesn't like you, but it's not you."

Julia frowned. _Fine, so it's my Council connections screwing things up for me yet again._ _That hardly helps_, she thought, but she didn't say it.

Toshiko propped herself up on one elbow. "We knew from the start that there were more Syndrome kids out there on the stations than we could take with us," she said. "Devon went through hell trying to figure out how to decide who came and who didn't, and when we finally agreed that it had to be based on medical concerns first, it was a relief. Because she knew she didn't have to make the decision." She put her hand on Julia's arm. "She hates herself for that," Toshiko continued. "I could see it—she felt awful that she couldn't handle that part of it, that she had to get someone else to do the dirty work."

"So she ignored me, hoping it'd just go away?" Julia said, unable to keep silent any longer.

"Something like that," Toshiko said honestly, lifting the hand that had been on Julia's arm in a placating gesture. "As long as she didn't get to know you, she could pretend that you weren't that affected by it, that it didn't eat you up like she knew it would have done to her. So she had Vasquez pick the person he thought was best to give people the news, and she kept herself out of it. But now…" Toshiko paused, shaking her head. "She's trying, Julia. And I think you'll both like each other if you can get past this."

"Lie back, Tosh," Julia said gently. "Have a good sleep." She gave her the injection, watched till she nodded off, then set the chamber and watched her slide in. _It would be nice to believe her,_ Julia thought. But Toshiko always thought the best of everyone. Julia found it hard to believe that Devon's attitude didn't have anything to do with Julia's background.

Julia tried to dismiss the thoughts about Devon Adair from her mind so she could focus on the task at hand and finally get some sleep. All the readouts looked good, so she turned to her next one.

"Tru Danziger," Sawyer said next to her. "Right here." He cycled the chamber open, and Julia looked around, and had a bad moment when she didn't see Tru anywhere.

"We're here," John Danziger said, coming up with his daughter in tow. "Sorry—I overslept."

Julia tried not to wonder if he was covering for something else Tru had done. "Not a problem," she said. "Here, Tru," she said, gesturing to the bunk. "Make yourself comfortable." Tru climbed onto the bunk and lay down, looking resigned. Julia checked her vitals one last time, then prepared the injection. Right before she gave it, she squeezed Tru's hand. "Thanks," she whispered. "I'm glad I didn't have to say anything to Melanie."

Tru looked shocked, then smiled, shaking her head. "You totally scammed me," she said, admiringly.

Julia shrugged, grinning, and gave her the injection. She was asleep in seconds.

"What was that about?" Danziger said warily.

"Nothing you need to worry about, Danziger," Julia said as he climbed onto his bunk. "She is a handful, though."

"Tell me about it," he growled as she injected him.

She finally got to Devon and Uly twenty minutes and seven people later. Uly's lung function was back up to his highest level in the last three weeks. _Thank god_, Julia thought. "Looking good, Uly," she said.

"Will I dream?" he asked.

"I don't know," Julia said seriously. "Most of the medical studies say no, but there are too many stories about people saying they have for me to say for sure. If you do, you'll have to tell me about it. I'd be curious—sometimes dreams have connections to what's going on with the body, and I've wondered what the reaction to cryogenic sleep would be."

"I'll try to remember them," Uly said earnestly.

"And I'll be here when you wake up," Devon said, sitting down on the bunk beside him, and Julia noticed that her voice sounded a little rough. _She's covering it very well_, she thought, but apparently not well enough.

"Mom," he said, stretching the word into two syllables. "I'll be fine. I feel really good today."

"Hey, it's my job to worry," Devon said. "Your job is to be snotty to me. I figure you're so very good at yours, I have to work extra hard to keep up."

Uly grinned at her. "I am pretty good," he said, glancing at Julia, who smiled. She gave him the injection, and Devon held his hand as he fell asleep, then kissed his forehead. "G'night, tiger," she whispered.

Devon stood up, and Julia watched Sawyer set the chamber. All the readouts looked good, and Julia sighed in relief.

"Now it's my turn," Devon said shakily, then laughed. "I've spent all this time worrying about Uly, and I didn't realize that this scares me silly."

_She really is trying_, Julia thought, thinking about what Toshiko had said. "I can't tell you anything about the process that you don't already know," she said to Devon, figuring the standard reassurances were probably lost on her. "All I can tell you is, I'll be joining you in a few minutes, and I wouldn't do that if I didn't trust the systems completely."

Devon lay down on her bunk and smiled at Julia. "That's just about the most reassuring thing you could have said."

"I just told you what I'd want to hear," she said. She gave Devon the injection. "And what I'll be telling myself over and over…" Devon giggled faintly, then subsided into sleep.

"Now it's your turn," she said to Sawyer. He clambered obediently into his bed. She checked his vitals, frowned a little to see his heart rate was a little high, and he seemed odd, but she put both down to nerves. _If Devon Adair can be scared of coldsleep, so can he_, she thought. She prepared his injection, then reached over to give it to him. Just as she hit the button, he sat up on one elbow. "Wait, Jeff, you need to—" she started to say.

"Look, when we wake up, do you wanna…get some…" he said in a rush, blushing furiously, but the last couple of words trailed off as he slumped back, asleep. Julia smiled affectionately at his sleeping form. _I wonder how long he's been preparing for that_, she thought, touched.

"Hey, Heller," the pilot said behind her. She turned, startled, wondering if he'd heard. _Oh, I hope not_, she thought. He'd give Jeff such a hard time about it. But he seemed not to have noticed anything. Julia nodded at him, then turned and set Jeff's chamber.

Solace climbed into his bunk without a word, and watching his chiseled chest as he lay back, Julia was for some reason very glad that she was going to be the last one in, so she hadn't had to change into her sleepwear yet. "So, listen, Heller," Solace said, looking seriously at her as she was about to give him his injection, "when we wake up, do you wanna—?" He broke off, grinning at her as she hit him hard with the injection. "I could die happy right now," he said, staring at her, then his eyes closed and the grin faded as he fell asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: So, yeah, I have a bunch of this done, and it's killing me wanting feedback, and since I posted the first chapter on the Fourth of July, and it's kind of the Eden Project declaring independence, I thought I'd finish posting what would be the equivalent of a two-part pilot episode. So...about the feedback...um... plz? God, I'm so needy..._

Earth Two

Chapter 2: Through the Looking Glass

Twenty-two years later, Julia woke up freezing. She knew it was as much psychological as real, but there was no getting around it—she was cold. And groggy. She rolled out of the coldsleep bed and staggered a little, trying to get her legs to work right. She stood still for a second, knowing she needed to give her body time to recover. But she also needed to go check on the pilot.

She pulled on her robe and stumbled down the corridor to the med lab. She picked up her diaglove and headed for the lift, checking her own vitals as she went, running them a second time when she realized she'd been staring at the first run long enough for the glove to reset.

She leaned tiredly against the wall of the lift as it rose, and she must have dozed off for a moment, because she heard the doors of the lift open, and it took her a moment to realize she was at comm level. She started for the doors only to have them shut in front of her, then open again. She stepped carefully over the knee knocker—_the most apt nickname ever_, she thought vaguely—and made her way toward the cockpit. _Wait, that puts knee knockers in second_. She tightened her robe before she entered, but she knew nothing she did was likely to change her reception.

She paused at the door of the cockpit, waiting for Solace to notice she was there.

"Position and course verification check in progress," Solace said. "So if we're a couple of million miles off course, we get to let everybody sleep in, right? And you and I can get a different kind of rack time?"

"That's right," Julia said, and then realized it sounded like she was agreeing to both parts of that question. She hoped he'd missed it, and stepped forward to check his vitals with the diaglove.

"Well," Solace said, turning to grin at her. "You'll be happy to know that my record's intact. Haven't missed yet."

"Okay," Julia said tonelessly as she held her hand to his neck and studied the diaglove readout, hoping he'd get the hint.

"I could postpone everyone's defrost anyway, and we could celebrate life a little bit," Solace said, looking seriously into her eyes.

She looked back, trying to think of a snappy comeback, but all she could come up with was that he had really nice eyes. _What am I thinking?_

"What do you say?" Solace said, smiling as though he knew just what she was thinking.

She rolled her eyes. "Is that the only line you sleepjumpers can come up with these days?" she said finally.

"You've worked on sleep runs?" Solace said, surprised.

"Well, let's just say your reputation precedes you," she said.

"I don't have one," Solace said seriously, putting his hand on her arm to keep her from turning away. "I'm not around long enough to make one. But you," he paused, leaning forward slightly, and for an instant Julia thought he was going to kiss her, and for another instant, she couldn't think what she should do about that. "You have some sleep in your eye," he said, and reached up to brush it away.

"What?" she finally managed to say, reaching up to push his hand away, just as there as a loud clunk behind her.

"Augh," Danziger said, catching himself on the doorframe. "Man, oh, man," he muttered.

_Knee knockers,_ Julia thought irrelevantly, turning to look at him. Alonzo laughed. She made her way over to him to check his vitals.

"Man, 'Lonz, tell me I can go back to bed," Danziger said.

"Sorry, pal, we're right on course. I win the betting pool. Tell your guys to fork over!"

_He is way too cheerful this soon after waking up,_ Julia thought, wishing Danziger would stand still while she checked him.

"What are you, a morning person?" Danziger said, echoing her thoughts. She smacked his hand away as he started to play with her diaglove.

"Hey, I can't help it if I love my job," Solace said.

Julia finished her scan of Danziger and slipped down the corridor, glad to make her escape before she really made an idiot of herself.

"What is this, your first coldsleep?" Solace asked Danziger as he turned to finish his checklist.

"Nah," Danziger said, lurching over to sit in the observer's chair. "Third, never more than three years, though. I had some kind of weird dream or somethin'."

"Not me, pal. I've been under so many times, I've lost my dream button. Never really get used to how the world changes, though. One long night's sleep, everything you knew…almost a quarter of a century older." He picked up a photo and held it for Danziger to see. "Probably a grandmother now." Danziger frowned. "So that's why we get the heavy pay, huh?" Alonzo said, looking wistfully at the picture again.

"How old are you, man?" Danziger asked curiously.

"A lot older than you, kid," Alonzo said with a grin.

* * *

The rest of the coldsleep revivals went fine except for Uly's. _And that has nothing to do with Uly,_ Julia thought tiredly, watching Devon hover nervously over her still-sleeping son. "He's still under ninety-seven," Devon said nervously.

"That's fine," Julia said reassuringly, coming back over.

"Shouldn't he be responding by now?" Devon said, looking up at her.

Julia ran the diaglove over the boy, then shook her head slightly. "Cardiorespiratory's improving…EEG's on target."

But Devon wasn't having any of it. "Maybe we should give him a stimulant."

Julia looked sharply at her. _Is she crazy?_ she thought. _You can't give a stimulant to somebody fresh out of coldsleep. They don't even recommend __coffee__ for twenty-four hours!_ But she looked absolutely serious. Julia stood and started for the door, then stopped and turned back. "Ms. Adair," she said, "I do know what I'm—"

"Oh, hell," Devon interrupted, shaking her head. Julia blinked. "I'm sorry," Devon said. "I'm doing it again. You'd think after chewing up and spitting out fourteen doctors in seven years, I'd have learned my lesson."

"I'm sorry?" Julia said, confused.

Devon looked up at her. "Let me try this again. You're our only doctor, which means I have to find a way to get along with you. And so far, I haven't done a very good job of that. Jim Harrison thought the world of you, so the least I can do is give you a chance."

"Uh…thank you?" Julia said uncertainly.

Devon smiled at her. "Now, how about I stop being the overprotective mother and let you do your job?"

"Mom?" Uly said groggily.

"Hey, tiger!" Devon said, looking vastly relieved. "How do you feel?"

"Like I've been sleeping for a really long time," Uly said in that "you are such an idiot" tone, and once again Devon wished he hadn't picked up that particular trait from his father.

"Of course," Devon said dryly. "Why don't we let Dr. Heller take a look at you, okay?"

"Please," Julia said, smiling tentatively at them both, "call me Julia."

* * *

"I can't believe I agreed to come on this stupid mission," Morgan Martin said, pacing in his quarters. "It has been nothing but trouble since day one. Working with that…that woman, Adair, with her 'my son is sick, me and my psycho cyborg tutor want to stop the world and get off,'" he whined. "And then my own employers try to blow me up—and after I worked so hard to make it to level four! I never even got to enjoy our new quarters, and who knows what they'll stick us with when we get—" He stopped, realizing that Bess wasn't responding to him. She was just staring blankly at the mirror. "What is it, Bess?"

"I feel older," she said after a moment.

"Bess, we've been over this a million times," Morgan said impatiently. "They call it suspended animation because you're not animated while you're in it. You can't age in coldsl—"

"I know that, Mr. Smartypants Martin," Bess snapped. "I didn't say I was older, I said I felt older. You can't suspend feelings!"

Morgan blinked, surprised at the sudden outburst. Bess was usually so happy, and he was the moody one. "I'm…I'm sorry, Bess," he said. "I didn't mean—"

"I know," she sighed. "I'm sorry I'm snappish. It must be the coldsleep."

"You do know you've got one thing going for you," Morgan said, hoping she'd take this the right way. "When we get back, you'll be the best-looking seventy-two year old on the stations. And without benefit of cosmetic adjustment."

Bess smiled a watery smile at him, which wasn't as good as the laugh he'd been hoping he'd get, but it was better than nothing.

"Can I get you something?" Morgan asked. "I could run down to the mess hall and get some coffee. Or maybe they have some more of that blue jello you like. Do you want some blue jello?"

She smiled at him a little more brightly. "That's all right," she said. "I'll be fine. You don't need to worry."

"You know I'd do anything for you, right?" Morgan said gently. "It means the world to me that you supported me in this, even though it has turned into a complete nightmare."

"It's not a nightmare," Bess said seriously. "It's an adventure." She smiled, and it was finally a real Bess smile. "And I'd do anything for you, too, Mr. Smartypants Martin."

Morgan kissed her, wondering as he always did how he'd managed to get so damned lucky. _It must be that I used up all my luck on this one thing_, he thought, and smiled. _And I'm okay with that._

* * *

"So, Sawyer, have you seen our fair doctor since we woke up?" Solace said, coming into the mess hall. "I sure did. Best wakeup call I've ever gotten."

Sawyer didn't even turn around, but Solace noticed his ears went pink.

"We have coffee," he said, coming around to sit next to him. "I didn't catch whether you were intending something stronger for your first date."

"Knock it off, Solace," Sawyer growled.

"Hey, you don't have to worry about me getting in the way," Solace said, patting Sawyer on the shoulder. "She has made it perfectly clear that she is not interested in me. So go for it!"

Sawyer picked up his tray. "See ya, Mel. I'm going to finish this in my quarters. Where it's quiet."

"Aw, c'mon, Sawyer, it's just a joke!" Solace called after him, grinning.

"That was mean," Melanie said after Sawyer left the mess hall. "He really likes her."

"I know, that's what makes it so much fun!" Solace said. "If it's any consolation, Heller's pretty much aware of his feelings."

"She is?" Melanie said, surprised.

"Yep—Sawyer expressed his true love right before he started drooling on the coldsleep bunk," Solace said. "I believe his exact words were 'when we wake up, do you want to get some—urk!'" He let his eyes roll back in his head and collapsed dramatically onto the table.

"That's so sweet!" Melanie said, and Solace looked up at her, amused.

"You're such a romantic, Mel. For what it's worth, I didn't get the impression he'd make her throw up or anything. So maybe he's got a chance, if he can defrost her."

"She's only that way with you, Solace," Melanie said. "And I can't say I blame her. She'd be a lot better off with Sawyer."

"Melanie, you're breaking my heart. I'd be good for Heller—really, really good," he said, waggling his eyebrows.

Melanie swatted him. "You'll never understand women, 'Zo."

"I don't want to understand them," Alonzo said. "That's for guys like Sawyer. But he'd better move fast—we're only a few hours from dropping them off."

Melanie nodded sadly. "It's too bad she's been so busy since we woke up—she's having to do all the prep for the landing in the med lab on top of all the other stuff that scumbag Vasquez was supposed to do. I'm pretty sure she worked all night."

"Then now would definitely be the best time for him to give it a shot—her defenses will be down. I'd better go grab him. I'm not sure he'll even have time for a quickie if he doesn't—"

The ship lurched suddenly, throwing half the occupants of the mess hall to the floor, including Melanie. Alonzo grabbed her arm, helped her to her feet, and dragged her toward the door as alarm klaxons went off.

"What the hell was that?" Melanie said. "It felt like a hit from orbital debris."

"Well, that would make sense if we were in orbit around Earth," Solace said as they headed down the corridor towards the cockpit. "But this is G-889—there shouldn't be any debris. It could have been a meteor, I guess."

They skidded into the cockpit, and Alonzo started studying the readouts. _Jesus,_ he thought. _This is __bad__._

"Status," O'Neill barked, coming in just after them.

"We're screwed," Solace said.

"What?" O'Neill came over to him and Solace pointed at the readouts. "What the hell happened?"

"Direct hit to the port rear thruster," he said. "We're venting atmosphere, we've lost attitude control—it must have taken out one of the relays—and our orbit's decaying already. We've got maybe ten minutes—fifteen at the outside."

"Damn," O'Neill breathed. He stood and turned to Melanie. "Tell 'em to abandon ship. Solace, you need to launch the supply pods now."

"They're gonna end up all over hell and gone," Solace said. "I can't exactly point them in the right direction."

"Better that than burning up in the atmosphere," O'Neill said. "At least we have a shot at saving them this way. Just do the best you can."

"Roger that," Solace said, and began punching the commands into the console.

"Dev," O'Neill snapped into the comm. "Get your people to the escape pods, now!"

"What happened?" Devon said, but O'Neill had already cut her off.

"Do what you can to hold her together for five minutes, Solace," he said. "Then you get to the pods."

* * *

The ship lurched again, throwing Julia hard against the bulkhead as Melanie Wilson's voice came over the comm, "Abandon ship. All hands to the escape pods. This is not a goddamn drill!" She grabbed hold of the doorframe of the medical supply room and pulled herself in. She pulled the portable med kit out of the cabinet beside the door and set it by the door, then pulled out one of the duffle bags and started shoving things into it.

_Extra diaglove_, she thought, ticking them off in her head as she pulled them out of the cabinets. _Extra power cell, coagulant, disinfectant, topical anesthetic—_

The deck below her dropped away for an instant, then she was slammed back to the deck as the artificial grav recovered. She turned to the locked medications cabinet and punched in her code. She didn't even try to keep track of what she was getting, she just held the duffel up and swept everything on each shelf off into the bag with her free hand.

"Doctor Heller!" someone said, and she whirled to find Melanie standing by the door. "What do you need me to do?"

Julia let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Here," she said, holding out the bulging duffel. "Take this and the med kit, get them to one of the pods, and then get back here and help me with the rest."

"I don't know if we have time—" Melanie started to say, taking the duffel from her, but Julia didn't let her finish.

"We have to make time!" she snapped. "We're going to need everything in this room if we're going to survive! Now move!" She turned back to the cabinet and pulled out a storage case. She began shoving more medications into that, ignoring Melanie's frightened nod.

_What else?_ Julia thought frantically, getting the last of the medications in the cabinet into the case. _Surgical supplies,_ she thought, and turned to that cabinet and started grabbing more things. She reached up to the top cabinet, remembering that there was another portable med kit there, but as she opened the cabinet, the ship bucked again, and the kit came down on top of her.

She found herself lying on the deck, with boxes of supplies scattered around her. Her cheek hurt, and she reached up and felt blood. She shook herself, struggled to her knees, and grabbed the case and the med kit, then looked around to see what else she needed.

"Time to go, Heller!" she heard Solace say from behind her. "We gotta—jesus! What happened to you?"

"Here," Julia said, ignoring his question. She shoved the med kit into his hands. She turned back and grabbed another case of supplies from the cabinet.

"Alonzo!" Melanie said from the corridor. "Hurry! There's only one pod left, and they're almost full!"

"What do you mean, one left?" Solace said, his voice rising.

"That button-pusher Martin launched early," Melanie said bitterly. "He left without a full load."

"He what? Damn it!" Solace swore. He handed Melanie the med kit. "We don't have time for more, Heller," he said, grabbing her arm and yanking her toward the door.

"No, wait," she said, pulling away. She tried to grab the case from the floor.

"The ship's breaking apart, Heller! We have to go, now!"

Julia felt her heart go cold. _Uly's meds_, she thought, horrified. _I almost left without—_

Solace yanked at her again, and was surprised at her strength when she tore herself free. She launched herself at the last cabinet, tore it open, and grabbed the two cases on the middle shelf. She turned, shoved one into Solace's hands and grabbed the case on the floor. "Okay," she said, and nearly fell into Solace's arms as the ship slewed wildly to the side.

They clawed their way out of the sick bay and Solace pulled her after him, following Melanie down to the waiting pod, dodging sparks shooting out from damaged panels.

"Damn it, Solace!" she heard O'Neill shout as they made it to the pod. "Where the hell've you been? Everybody else is off!"

"Here," Solace said, shoving medical supplies into O'Neill's arms. "Find a place to stow these. C'mon, Heller!" He grabbed her by both arms and yanked her into the pod, shoving her down into one of the seats so hard she yelped. He pulled the safety bar down over her, then turned and made sure Melanie was in, then yanked the pod door closed. He glanced back to be sure everybody was secure, and realized that O'Neill was still standing.

"We're SRO," O'Neill said dryly. "Go ahead and launch. We'll have to hope for the best."

"No!" Julia gasped. "It isn't safe—you'll—" but Solace had already pulled the launch handle. He turned toward her, and she reached for his arm, but the pod had already shot away from the ship, and he was hurled against the door, with O'Neill landing against him.

For a moment, Julia thought they were going to be okay. The pod seemed to be taking a straight trajectory away from the ship. But then something must have hit them, and the inside of the pod turned into a nightmare. They spun wildly, the pod's stabilizers completely overwhelmed. Unsecured boxes flew through the air. Julia watched in horror as one narrowly missed Devon. She covered Uly's head protectively with one arm and held up the other to ward it off, but it bounced off the bulkhead beside her, then shot back across the pod…right into O'Neill's head.

Blood spattered the wall beside Julia, and O'Neill went limp. There was another thud, and the pod spun even more. O'Neill's unconscious body slid across the bulkhead beside Julia, and she grabbed desperately for him. She got hold of his uniform with one hand and pulled him toward her, wrapping both arms around his burly chest. His head lurched back as the pod bucked again, hitting Julia's head hard enough she saw stars. She almost lost hold of him, but she forced herself to hang on as his blood ran down across her face.

After that she lost track of what was going on.

The pod continued to spin for what seemed like forever. Devon held Uly's head tightly against her, one hand over his ear. She kept expecting people to scream, but the only sound beyond the roaring as the pod passed through the atmosphere was a momentary whimper that sounded like it came from the little girl on Danziger's lap. Finally, there was a jolt hard enough that Devon bit her tongue, and the pod suddenly stabilized. They were still moving—she could feel that—but they were no longer tumbling. _The chutes_, she thought vaguely. _They must have deployed, which means we're close to the—_

There was another, even more violent jolt, and they weren't moving anymore, though the pod seemed to be tilting towards the side to the right of the pod hatch.

There was a groan from somewhere near the hatch, and somebody gasped, "We're down!"

"Is everybody okay?" Devon said, her voice shaky. She looked down at Uly, and he looked up at her, wide-eyed, then nodded.

"I'm fine," Helen Reeves said after a moment, and then several others chimed in.

Devon looked around the pod at the stunned and frightened faces, then saw Solace. He was leaning against the hatch, looking dazed, then he winced. She saw him reach weakly for his leg, and Devon pulled Uly's head back against her so he wouldn't see the leg that should have been straight but very clearly wasn't.

"Dr. Heller?" Adair said, realizing with a shock that she hadn't heard from the doctor yet. _Please_, she thought desperately, _she has to be—_

Devon looked over to where she'd seen Solace shove the doctor into a seat right before they launched, and was even more glad she'd kept Uly from seeing anything. Commander O'Neill was draped over Dr. Heller, and her arms were wrapped tightly around him. O'Neill was clearly unconscious, his head tilted back at an uncomfortable angle, and she could see the back left part of his head was a mass of blood, with a frighteningly clear dent. The blood was streaming down the back of his head, and Devon could see Dr. Heller's hair beneath it was already matted with blood.

"Julia?" Devon said, and she couldn't help sounding scared.

"I-I'm...I'm okay," the doctor said finally, and Devon let out the breath she'd been holding. "But Commander O'Neill—" Dr. Heller continued, then stopped suddenly. "Solace!" she called desperately.

"I'm here," he said, and he sounded almost jaunty. "Not exactly in one piece, but I'm here. Nice to know you care, Heller."

"Hang on, Doctor—Julia. We'll help you out here in a second," Adair said.

Some of the others were already raising their safety bars and moving around the pod. Bill Marshall stepped over by the hatch, carefully avoiding Solace's mangled leg, then swore. "The external scanners aren't working—they must have been damaged in all that pounding we took."

"You mean we don't know what's out there?" Melanie said.

"We know exactly what's out there," Danziger said gruffly, holding his daughter in his arms in almost exactly the same way Devon was holding Uly. "The planet's habitable, right? It's not like we're gonna find methane or a vacuum."

"He has a point," Helen Reeves said. "I say we pop the hatch."

"Yeah," Valerie Carter said. "It's not like we have anywhere else to go."

Helen came over to hold Solace upright and Bill reached over Solace's head and pulled the release. The hatch raised with the hiss of the pod's pressurized air escaping, and Devon blinked at the brightness of a sunny day outside. She shook herself, realizing she'd been expecting it would be nighttime.

"Welcome to G-889," Helen said, and she sounded almost reverent.

"Wow," Melanie said.

"Not exactly how I'd planned to arrive," Valerie said, tucking a strand of red hair behind one ear as she craned her head to see past Bill. "But it's a lot better than not arriving at all."

"Careful," Solace said as Bill and Helen started to lift him. "I may need that leg," and then he made a strangled sound.

"Uly," Devon said, "I'm going to set you down. I need you to stay right here," she said. She raised the safety bar, got to her feet awkwardly on the tilted deck of the pod, and set Uly back on the seat. He leaned back against the seat, breathing heavily, his eyes wide.

"Hang on," Helen was saying to Solace as Devon turned around. "We've got you." They carefully maneuvered him out the hatch.

"Here," Danziger said, setting his daughter on the deck. "Tru, you go on out. Don't go anywhere!" She rolled her eyes at him, but nodded, and climbed out the hatch. "You, give me a hand," Danziger said to Rick Hansen, and Devon was startled to realize she had no idea he'd even been in the pod till that moment. Hansen made his way over to Danziger, and the two of them started to lift O'Neill.

"Wait!" Julia said, her voice muffled by O'Neill's body. "Don't move him yet—I need to scan to see how badly he's been hurt."

They stopped, but there was an ominous silence. "Uh, Doctor, he—" Rick started to say, but Devon stopped him with a look. She saw a med kit on the back wall of the pod. She ripped it open, found the diaglove, and grabbed it.

"Here's your diaglove," she said, maneuvering into the small space between the hatch and O'Neill and handed the glove to the doctor. Devon tried not to let her reaction to seeing Julia's face show. There was blood all down the left side and across her forehead, and what looked like tiny spatters of blood all over everything else Devon could see.

Julia let go of O'Neill with one arm and Devon helped her slide the glove into place. She carefully slid her other arm underneath the motionless commander while Danziger held him in place. She punched in the scan commands on the glove and held it close to O'Neill's head. Devon knew in an instant that the diaglove was telling the doctor what the rest of them already knew.

_Oh, god,_ Julia thought, staring at the readout. Massive cranial fractures, hemorrhaging, brain swelling already beginning— She forced herself to continue the scan to see if there was any spinal damage. There wasn't, not that it would do him much good. _Stop it,_ she said to herself. _It's not over yet._

"Okay, you can move him. Try to keep his head steady," Julia said, and felt them lift him awkwardly off her. Once there was room, she threw up the safety bar and followed them out of the pod.

Julia winced at the brightness of the sunlight. They had landed in a wide field bordered by trees. There were mountains off in the distance to her right, and it looked like there might be a stream on the far side of the meadow—there were glints of sunlight sparkling off of something. It took her an instant to realize the whispering sound she was hearing was air moving through the trees. She stepped away from the pod and turned to look around at the others.

To the left of the pod hatch, Helen and Rob were hovering worriedly over Solace, who was sitting with his back propped against the pod. He leaned his head back heavily against it, one hand gripping Rob's jacket tightly. Devon was climbing out of the pod door, holding Uly in her arms. Julia turned back to her right and saw Danziger and Hansen were gently laying O'Neill down on the ground, and she realized why Hansen had sounded so odd. The left side of O'Neill's head was a nightmare of blood and exposed brain tissue.

Julia flung herself down next to O'Neill, punching wildly at the diaglove to get more information about the extent of the injury. "I need a med kit," she snapped to anyone in earshot. "There are two in the pod. Hurry!"

_Jesus,_ Danziger thought, looking at the bloody mess that had been the side of O'Neill's head. _What does she think she can do for him?_ Julia was leaning over him, reading the diaglove, and then she sat back on her heels looking helpless.

"Here," Melanie said, skidding to a stop next to Julia and setting the med kit down. Julia looked up at her, and Devon felt her heart go cold. She was clearly trying to on a brave front, but it wasn't working. _No..._

Then Julia looked back down at the commander, and seemed to come to some decision. She turned to the med kit and began pulling out hypos and rifling through the kit for several vials and started injecting them into O'Neill.

"Melanie, I need oxygen," she said, starting an IV line and attaching a bag to it. Melanie grabbed the canister out of the med kit, scrambled over to O'Neill's other side, shoving Danziger out of her way, and placed the oxygen mask over his mouth and nose.

Devon turned and carried her son over to where Toshiko Miyoshi was looking grimly at the flurry of activity over the commander. "Tosh," Devon said, "could you look after Uly for a minute?" she asked, and Toshiko blinked at her for a moment, then nodded, reaching out to take Uly from her. "Hang in there, tiger," she said, trying not to sound shaky. He didn't say a word, looking wide-eyed at her as she turned away.

Devon forced herself to walk back over to where Julia was still working on O'Neill. She watched for several minutes, bracing herself for the moment when Julia gave up, but she seemed determined to keep going. Finally, she seemed to have done all she could for the moment. She sat back on her heels again, and let out a breath.

"How..." Devon started to say, and her voice caught. "How is he?" she finished.

Julia looked up at her and Devon recoiled from the look of despair on her blood-covered face. "If we were in a hospital..." she said, trailing off. "I don't have half the equipment I need, I don't dare risk surgery under these conditions—god knows what microbes there might be, and with the skull fractures..." She trailed off again, shrugging helplessly. "All I can do is try to keep the brain from swelling too much, keep his oxygen levels high, and try to keep him stable." She stopped as though she'd suddenly thought of something, and her head whipped around to look over at Solace, who was still gripping Rob's jacket. "Damn it," Julia said half to herself, scrambling to her feet. "I need to do triage! Melanie, keep that oxygen going! Devon, I need you to find out who else is hurt, and how bad. There's another diaglove somewhere in the pod. Can you use that?"

"I don't..." Devon faltered.

"I know how," Melanie said. "I'm—I was the comm deck emergency medic."

"Good," Julia said. "You find out who else is hurt, then let me know what you can't treat. Devon, you take over from Melanie. If anything changes, call me!"

Devon nodded, grabbing the oxygen mask from Melanie, who got up and then clambered awkwardly back into the pod.

Julia grabbed the med kit and headed over to Solace. She punched the diaglove and began scanning the pilot.

"Hey, Heller," he said, clearly trying to sound normal, but failing. His teeth were gritted, and he was clearly in a lot of pain. "Are you okay?" He was looking at her like she'd grown a second head.

"I'm fine," she said absently.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," she said, frowning at him. "Is there anything else that hurts besides the leg?"

"No, don't worry about me," Solace said. "It's just a twisted knee."

_Just a twisted knee,_ she thought, and almost laughed. _Multiple fractures in the right leg, but none of them compound, thank god. No other major injuries, just bruising and a few abrasions._ "This is a lot more than a twisted knee," she said, but she was relieved. "But you got lucky, Solace. A couple of days, and these fractures should heal just..." She trailed off as he looked almost dismayed. "Hey, don't worry," she said reassuringly. "The boneheal vaccine—"

"Yeah," Solace interrupted, stretching out the word uncomfortably, "…uh…about that..."

"No," Julia said, shaking her head disbelievingly. "You had to have gotten it—everybody on the project was required—"

"But I'm not on the project, or I wasn't. It was just a drop-and-go," he said, his hands up defensively.

"Oh, hell," Julia said, looking back over at O'Neill. _We won't be able to move at all,_ she thought. _There's no way we can risk it with O'Neill, and now this! Solace will be completely immobile for weeks._

"Hey, Heller, it can't be that bad, right?" Solace said.

She ignored him, pulling another vial out of the kit and injecting him with methohex.

"Heller?" he said questioningly, then his face relaxed. "Wow, what was—?" and his head lolled back as his eyes closed.

"Hold him and don't let him move," she said to Rob, who looked baffled.

"But he's out cold," he said.

"He won't be once I start setting his leg," she said grimly. Rob's eyes widened. She ran the diaglove over the leg, injected pain block, an anti-inflammatory and an additional muscle relaxant, and then looked up. Melanie was talking to Helen over by the pod. "Melanie!" she called. "I need your help!"

Melanie nodded, and came over. "What is it?"

Julia almost launched into her plan for setting Solace's leg then stopped herself. _Triage, you idiot—keep your focus!_ "How are we with the rest of the injuries? Is there anything urgent?"

Melanie shook her head. "Cuts are the worst of it," she said.

"Good," Julia said, relieved. "First, I need you to take your glove over to Adair and show her how to scan O'Neill's vitals. Tell her to let me know if his blood pressure drops or if the brain activity drops below 27."

Melanie nodded, and ran back over to Adair.

"Can I help, Doc?" Danziger said, coming up.

Julia nodded. "I need an inventory of everything I got out of sick bay," she said. "I think I got a cortical stimulator, but I'm not—"

"A corti-what?" Danziger said, then said, "Never mind. If it isn't labeled, I'll bring it and ask you. Tru," he called. "Give me a hand!"

Julia smiled thinly. "Thanks," she said, and turned back to the diaglove. _Okay_, she thought. _Tibia first, and try for the fibula at the same time, then a temporary splint for those, and then up to the femur._

Melanie came back over. "Okay, she's set. What do you need?"

"I need you to keep scanning as I set the leg. Tell me when I get it into place," she said.

"What?" Melanie said.

"Here," Julia said, grabbing her arm and punching a command into the glove. "Now hold it over his leg here and tell me when it looks like I have it in place."

"I don't know if I can—" Melanie began.

"You have to," Julia said coldly. "I need to do this before his leg swells too much. Now do it!"

It took almost an hour to get all four of the fractures aligned, and the two in the tibia had been particularly difficult. At one point Julia was afraid she'd have to do surgery to get it in place. Solace had writhed under Rob's hold, and Melanie had looked like she was going to throw up at any moment, but they'd gotten through it.

Julia still wasn't sure the leg fractures would heal properly—_what kind of idiot doesn't get boneheal?_ she thought for the thousandth time—but she refused to let herself think about what would happen if they didn't.

Melanie helped her to put the plasticast in place, and she scanned the leg again as the plasticast set to be sure nothing had shifted. She sighed in relief, rubbed her eyes tiredly, then turned to Melanie. "Okay, those are the major injuries. How are we on the minor ones?"

Melanie took a deep breath. "Like I said, mostly cuts and bruises," she said. "Tru probably has the worst one—it looks like something hit her knee hard enough to lay it open almost to the bone."

Julia nodded, grabbed the med kit and started to her feet, but Melanie grabbed her arm to stop her. "You might want to take a minute to clean up first," she said.

"Huh?" Julia said, confused.

"You're a little scary-looking right now," Melanie said gently. "There's blood all over your face from..." She swallowed. "It might scare Tru."

Julia nodded, and rooted around in the med kit for some gauze and disinfectant. She wiped at her face and was shocked at how much blood came off on the gauze. _God, I must look horrific_, she thought, and realized her hair on that side was matted against her head. She wiped more at her face before she started in on the hair, and winced as the disinfectant stung.

"Damn it, Dr. Heller, why didn't you say you were hurt, too?" Melanie said, grabbing her hand to pull it away from her face and looking hard at her cheek.

"It's nothing," Julia protested, but Melanie ignored her. She yanked the diaglove off Julia's hand and shoved it on her own, then scanned Julia's face. She looked relieved. "See," Julia said. "I told you it was nothing."

"Multiple contusions and a nasty cut aren't nothing," Melanie said roughly, "but at least they're not serious."

"I'll take care of the cut as soon as I get done with Tru, okay?" Julia said, working the gauze through her hair to try to get some of the blood out. "And by the way, call me Julia."

"Sure," Melanie said, "as long as you promise to keep in mind that if anything happens to you, I'm about the best doctor we have." She raised her eyebrows significantly. "No more ignoring your own injuries, okay, Julia? I really don't want your job."

Julia gave her a shadow of a smile. "It's a promise. Here," she handed Melanie a hypospray. "If he wakes up," she gestured at Solace, "hit him with this. I don't want him moving at all, and he's a lot easier to deal with unconscious anyway."

Melanie snorted, and Julia realized that she'd just made a joke.

"Dr. Heller!" Devon called, and she sounded panicked.

Julia threw down the bloody gauze, grabbed her diaglove from Melanie and turned towards O'Neill.

And saw everyone staring at her. All at once, Julia realized just how few of them there were, how precarious their situation was, and how much they were all depending on her to save the one man they were counting on to make everything okay.

_And there's no way I can save him_, she thought bleakly. She swallowed hard, and shook off the thought. _Just do the best you can_, she told herself sternly as she walked purposefully over to O'Neill.

The next several hours were a blur. It seemed like every time Julia was able to get O'Neill stabilized, something else would happen. And each time, she felt like she was losing ground. At some point, the others built a fire in a bare spot a few yards from the pod, and Helen came over to help set up a makeshift lamp over O'Neill so Julia could see what she was doing as it got dark.

A long time after that, Danziger came over and draped his jacket over her shoulders, and she realized she'd been shivering. She had Helen find everything remotely resembling a blanket they could spare and covered O'Neill in them, hoping to give his body one less strain to cope with.

* * *

Devon sighed, staring at the flickering fire in front of her. She was trying not to keep looking over to where Julia was still working on O'Neill.

"Hey, Adair," Danziger said, squatting down next to her. "I was talking to a couple of the others, and I think we have a pretty good estimate of who made it off the ship."

Devon looked sharply at him. "You mean somebody didn't?" she said, her heart sinking.

Danziger nodded. "But it's not as bad as it might have been. We got really lucky, Adair. If whatever hit us had been just a couple of minutes later, none of us would have gotten off."

"Tell that to the people who didn't make it," Devon said quietly.

Danziger nodded. "Yeah. So, I know that two of my mechs got cut off by a coolant leak. They were on their way around through an access tube, but I'm pretty sure they didn't have time to make it."

"And?" Devon said, dreading the answer.

"Rob Anderson said he heard one of the mechs talking to somebody in section nine right after the alarms went off. Nine is real close to where whatever it was hit. He said it sounded like there were two people back there, and they were trapped by a bulkhead that sealed off because they were losing pressure."

"Oh, god," Devon said, trying not to imagine the horror of a death by vacuum. "Do we know their names?" she said quietly, hoping none of the others would wake up and hear them talking.

"I know my two—Craft Barstow and Keith Davis—and I have a good guess about the other two," he said, and his voice sounded even rougher than normal. "Jeff Sawyer's bunk was in section 9, and the next one up from his was Iggy Dzundzu." He took a breath. "The good news is, that means that none of the other pods were overloaded like ours—we had the two kids, plus O'Neill and Solace in ours, plus the four that didn't make it to the pods. So if Martin really did launch with just him and his wife, the eight slots in his pod are accounted for."

Devon looked disgusted. "So we can't pin anybody's death on him?" She refused to add the "yet" she'd almost said, thinking of O'Neill.

Danziger shrugged. "I sure hope not—I hate to think what our people will do when we find him as it is. Hell, I'd like to kick his ass myself."

"Get in line," Devon said. Danziger nodded with a faint smile, then got up and headed over to where Tru was sleeping. After he left, she realized what he'd said. _He thinks we'll find them_, she thought. _God, I hope he's right._

* * *

Julia caught herself nodding off, glanced up and noticed that the sky seemed to be getting a little lighter off to her right, and she could see the faint outlines of the mountain range she'd seen yesterday. _That must be east_, she thought vaguely, and then wondered if the planet rotated the same way Old Earth had. She scanned O'Neill again, and her heart sank when she realized his brain activity was three points lower. _Even if he survives,_ she thought_, the damage is too severe. The swelling is causing portions of his brain to die, and there is nothing I can do to stop it._

"Hey, Doc," Danziger said quietly, squatting on his heels beside her. "How ya doin'?"

Julia blinked back the tears that suddenly threatened to spill out. She looked steadily down at the diaglove, hoping Danziger wouldn't notice. "I'm okay," she said, trying unsuccessfully to keep her voice even.

"Yeah," Danziger said. "That's about what I thought." He didn't say anything for a long time, then cleared his throat. "Do you want me to tell them?"

She shook her head, biting her lip. "Let them sleep," she said tiredly.

"What about you?" Danziger said quietly. "You haven't slept at all. Even Tru dropped off a while ago."

"Oh, god, Tru!" Julia said, suddenly remembering her injury. "I'm sorry! I should have—"

"Woah, wait, I didn't mean to make you—damn, I'm sorry," Danziger said, putting his hand on her shoulder to keep her from getting up. "Tru's fine," he said emphatically. "The cut's not that bad. Mel treated it and gave her some pain meds, so don't you worry about her. All I meant was that you need to get some sleep, too."

Julia shook her head. "I can't—he's still fighting," she said, knowing it was pointless, but she just couldn't bring herself to stop trying.

"Sure, Doc," Danziger said. "How 'bout I bring you come coffee, then?"

Julia finally managed to look up at him and smile a little. "You managed to come up with coffee?" she said wonderingly.

He grinned. "I'm a mech, Doc. We do miracles daily. A little coffee's a piece of cake." He got up and sauntered over to the fire.

Julia was on her third cup of coffee when O'Neill's heart stopped. She shot him with adrenaline, knowing it would probably cause more damage to the brain, but she couldn't think what else to do. She set the diaglove to defibrillate, hit him once, but there was no response.

She was about to do it again when Devon put her hand on Julia's shoulder. "Let him go, Julia," she said quietly.

"But—" Julia started to protest, but Devon stopped her.

"Do you really think there's a chance?"

Julia glanced up at her, and Devon knew the answer as well as she did.

Devon squeezed her shoulder. "I'll tell the others," she said.

"No," Julia ground out. "Not yet. His brain is still…" She stopped, and took a breath. "Give me a few more minutes. And they should hear it from me. They need to know it's my call."

Devon nodded, and knelt down on O'Neill's other side. Julia set the diaglove on continuous update and watched his brain function drop slowly. Devon was holding his hand in both of hers, and Julia wondered if she should say something to O'Neill, if there were still a part of his brain that could hear, but she couldn't think of anything to say.

His brain function finally hit zero after four minutes. Julia found herself glancing at the diaglove so she could record the time of death, and then realized she didn't have anything she could record into. And the diaglove was still set to station time—it thought it was 11:05 p.m.

Julia stood up, carefully not looking at Devon, and her legs protested at the long hours in the same position. She turned to where the others were huddled around the remnants of the fire, and felt a momentary fear. _They'll blame me_, she thought, suddenly frightened. _If I'd gotten to the pod sooner, we might have gotten away without being hit. Or if I'd gotten there soon enough to stow the gear properly, then he wouldn't have been injured. Maybe if I'd gotten the right equipment, I could have saved him. Maybe there was something else I could have done—maybe Devon's right, and I'm just too inexperienced—_

Devon started past her, and Julia forced herself forward. She stopped a few feet from the fire, and everyone looked up at her. It was clear they all knew what she was going to say. "Commander O'Neill is dead," she said bluntly, ruthlessly shoving her emotions into the background so she could get the words out. "I'm sorry—"

"It's not your fault," Helen said quickly, and there nods of agreement all around the campfire.

Julia swallowed, unable to make any words get past the lump in her throat.

"I'll see what we can do for a burial," Danziger said gruffly. Rob, Helen and Bill all got up to help him. They filed past her, and Helen patted her shoulder as she passed.

"Don't take it so hard, Dr. Heller," Rob said. "We know you did your best."

"Why don't you get some sleep?" Devon said from behind her.

She shook her head. "I need to check on the other injuries," she said, turning to where Melanie was lying asleep next to Solace by the pod. Julia scanned him quickly, and was relieved to see that there didn't seem to be much more bleeding around the fractures. Even the swelling wasn't as bad as she'd been worried it might be. She adjusted the pressure of the plasticast slightly, trying to jostle the pilot as little as possible, but it must have hurt, because he started to stir.

"Good morning," Melanie said, propping herself up on one arm. "How's—" she started, and then saw Julia's face. "Oh. Damn," she breathed. She shook her head. "I'm sorry, Julia."

"Sorry about what?" Solace said groggily.

"How is your pain level?" Julia asked, ignoring the question for the moment.

Solace waved his hand airily.

"Don't give me that," Julia said, and there was a dangerous edge to her voice. "I need to know what your pain level is. Pain can slow the healing process, and you have very serious fractures that need to heal as quickly as possible. Otherwise," she barreled on, ignoring Solace's wide-eyed questioning look at Melanie, "you could end up losing the leg. So how is your pain level?" Julia emphasized each of the last five words.

"Uh, on a scale of one to ten, it's about a…six," Solace said meekly, noticing that the bruise on her cheek had darkened to a deep purple that gave her a menacing look.

Julia nodded, turned to the med kit, and pulled out a hypospray. She injected him with a painblock and said, "You have one job for the next six weeks. One job." She held up her finger for emphasis. "Move that," she pointed at the leg, "as little as possible. You will get help whenever you need to move. Is that clear?"

"Six we—?" he started to protest, then thought better of it. "Yes, ma'am," he said.

Julia nodded tersely, got up and headed back over to the fire to check on Tru's knee.

"Jeez, what was that all about?" Solace asked Melanie.

"Commander O'Neill died," Melanie said.

"Aw, hell," Solace said.

* * *

The funeral had a surreal edge to it, particularly with addition of the two moons that were slowly rising over the mountains to the east. Even in VR, Devon had never seen anything quite like it.

Devon had had a hard time coming up with something to say, but she knew she had to. Julia was certainly in no shape to say anything. After her announcement about O'Neill, Devon had told everyone Danziger's news about the four who hadn't made it off the ship.

Julia had gone white when she heard Jeff Sawyer's name, and Devon kicked herself for not having taken her aside to tell her before the others. She and Sawyer had worked closely together, and Devon knew there'd been rumors that Sawyer had a thing for the doctor. Julia had immediately plunged herself into sorting out all the medical supplies, with Tru Danziger's surprising help, but it was clear that she was doing it to try to keep her mind off what had happened.

Devon was sure that despite everyone's assurances to her, Julia blamed herself for O'Neill's death. _I'm going to have to have a talk with her about that_, Devon thought. _Not that it'll do any good—she seems like she could give me a run for the Champion of Guilt Complexes._

Devon pulled herself back to thinking about what she was going to say, wishing there were someone else who could do it. _But who?_ Devon thought, watching Danziger and Bill carrying O'Neill's body over to the grave. _Of all of us, I think I'm the one who knew him best._ She found that thought heartbreaking, because when it came down to it, she didn't really know all that much about Brian O'Neill. She'd gotten the impression from him that he'd been married once, but she didn't know what had happened to the wife, or if he had any children.

Everyone was looking at her, and she realized Danziger and Bill were standing solemnly over the grave now. Devon swallowed, and took a deep breath. "I know this is difficult for all of us. I certainly didn't think I'd be christening our landing on G-889 with a funeral, let alone Brian O'Neill's funeral. But the truth is, it's only going to get harder. O'Neill was the man who got us here. I know full well that no matter how much work I put into this project, it would have gone nowhere without him. And now that he's gone, I have no idea what I'm going to do without him." She stopped, fighting back tears, and heard Toshiko sniffle. "But I want you all to know this: I will not allow this expedition to fail now. We will survive, we will build this colony, and that will be Brian O'Neill's legacy."

She stopped, wondering if there was anything else she should say, and Yale stepped forward. "I do not know what religion Commander O'Neill might have followed, nor even if he was a religious man, but I do not think he would mind this particular passage," Yale said, and then began reciting. "'Say not in grief that he is no more, but say in thankfulness that he was. A death is not the extinguishing of a light, but the putting out of the lamp because the dawn has come.'" Yale bowed his head, and then stepped back to where Uly was standing.

There was a long moment of silence, and then Danziger grabbed the makeshift shovel he'd somehow manufactured out of one of the panels from the inside of the pod and began shoveling dirt over O'Neill's body.

Devon turned to go, and saw Yale hovering worriedly over Uly at the back of the group. "What is it?" she said, hurrying over to kneel beside her son.

"He is having some difficulty breathing," Yale said, though it was obvious looking at him. His lips had taken on that faintly blue tinge he got when a bad spell was coming on. She turned to look for Julia, but she was already there, kneeling beside her and running her diaglove over Uly's chest.

The look on her face made Devon's heart skip a beat, but then she told herself that it wasn't Uly causing the look. It was the same look that had been on her face since she'd told everyone O'Neill was dead. A look of grim determination not to let anyone see how much she felt.

"Bring him to the pod," Julia said. "I'd like to keep him in a controlled environment as much as possible for now. It could be a reaction to unknown allergens." Yale nodded and scooped up Uly in his arms.

"Sorry, Mom," Uly said, wheezing slightly. "I didn't—mean to—"

"I know, Uly, I know," Devon said quickly. "It's okay." She followed them to the pod, where Julia set up a makeshift oxygen tent. She grabbed one of the cases she'd flung into the pod as they were about to launch, and Devon realized with a sudden lurch in her stomach that Julia must have grabbed Uly's medication at the last instant. She watched as Julia gave him an injection, and felt dizzy.

"I'm going to talk to Danziger," Julia said, climbing out of the pod. Devon followed her. "If we can set up the pod so the scrubbers are still working, that might help." She turned to Yale, who was perched on the threshold of the pod. "Keep an eye on him," she said, handing him one of the diagloves. "I want to know if his O2 sats drop below 94. Do what you can to help him relax."

"Of course," he said, and ducked back into the pod.

Julia turned around and frowned as she saw Devon's face. "Devon, are you all right?"

Devon nodded, trying not to let her little panic attack show. "Sorry," she said. "I'm just feeling the strain a little at the moment." She tried to smile, but knew it had to be a pretty feeble attempt. "How much of his medication were you able to get?" she said, dreading the answer.

"Enough," Julia said confidently, but Devon was less than reassured by her vagueness. "He'll be okay, Devon. I won't let anything happen to him," and Devon noticed the brittle edge she'd given the word "won't." Devon had an awful feeling that she and Julia were both on the edge of a cliff, and one little push…

Devon pulled herself away from that thought. "I know. Thank you," she said, trying to put every bit of confidence she could into the words.

Julia nodded, and headed off to talk to Danziger. Devon watched her go, and found herself wondering what Julia would look like if she smiled—really smiled. And whether she'd ever get the chance to see it. _Stop it,_ she told herself. She imagined O'Neill telling her to suck it up, and decided right then that this was the last moment of self-pity she would allow herself.

"What kind of signal?" Danziger was saying to Melanie as Julia came up. "Could it be one of the pods?"

"I don't know what else it could be," Melanie said, staring perplexed at a tablet she'd attached to some sort of makeshift antenna. "It's not like there's anybody else out there who'd be signaling, is there?"

Danziger looked up, realizing Julia was there. "Sorry," Julia said, "but I need some help. Can we get the pod's scrubbers going? Uly's not doing so good, and—"

"No problem, Doc," he said, scrambling to his feet. "Mel, you keep trying to get a direction on that signal," he said.

Julia followed him back to the pod, and found herself hovering nervously over him as he reset the scrubber and checked the filtration readouts. She tried to find something else in the pod to do, but Yale was reading something to Uly, and she didn't want to disturb them.

Danziger slapped a panel shut, stood up, and banged his head on one of the safety bars that was hanging down slightly. "OW!" he said, and Uly giggled.

"So you're not so sick you can't laugh at me, huh?" Danziger growled at him. "I've got my eye on you, kid." He narrowed his eyes, pointing one finger at him while he rubbed his head.

Uly grinned at him, and Julia was relieved to see Yale nod slightly at her. _His O2 sats must be up,_ she thought.

"Hang on, Danziger," she said before he could open the pod hatch again. "Yale, do you mind staying in here with Uly? I'd like to keep the door shut as much as possible so the scrubbers can keep the air cleaner for him."

"Certainly," Yale said. "We will be perfectly comfortable in here, won't we, Ulysses?"

Uly looked resigned, and Julia realized he wasn't looking forward to being trapped in the pod with Yale tutoring him. And she found herself envying him. _I wish that was all __I__ had to worry about._

"If you need anything, just call me on the gear," Julia said, nodding her thanks to Yale. She followed Danziger out of the pod and watched him seal it shut.

"I'll keep an eye on those scrubbers, Doc, but they should be good for at least a month, if not more," Danziger said, still rubbing his head.

"I hope we won't need it," Julia said grimly. "I'm hoping that Uly's just reacting to the stress—it would make sense. But if there is something in the air that's giving him trouble…" She trailed off nervously.

"Hey, look, Doc, if it's any help, I have really bad allergies—worst nose in history," he said, tapping it. "Most of the time on the stations, I have to get shots all the time, and I'm not having any problems here."

Julia smiled at him. "Thanks, that is actually a little reassuring. At least I won't have to worry about you."

Danziger barked a laugh, then headed back over to Melanie.

"How much do you love me?" Melanie said as he came up.

"More than life," he said, "if you got a direction."

"Oh, yeah, I got a direction," she said. "I'll load it into a tablet so you can follow it. I don't have a distance, though," she added, looking a little disappointed. "The signal cut off before I could get enough for an estimate."

"It cut off?" Danziger said, frowning. "I hope that doesn't mean something happened to the pod."

"Or worse, I was just getting a rogue bounce off the atmosphere, and it's really on the other side of the planet," Melanie said grimly. "But it was too steady for that, I think. I hope."

"Hey, I like my women in the glass-half-full category," Danziger said, turning to go find Devon. "Don't make me change my mind about loving you."

Melanie snorted, then grabbed another tablet and started plugging in the data.

"Adair!" Danziger called. She was talking to Julia, looking vastly relieved. "Have I got news for you!" he said.

"What is it?" Devon said.

"We've got a signal, and it looks like one of the pods may be broadcasting. I want to take a couple of people and go find it."

"I'll go," Helen said, coming up. "I'm going crazy here just sitting around."

Devon looked worried. "I'm not sure I like the idea of you going off on your own," she said.

"Come on, Adair," Danziger said. "We have to! If our people are out there, they need us. We have the only doctor for light-years, after all. Besides, their pod may have things we're gonna need."

"I know," Devon said. "I just…" She sighed. "Just be careful, okay? Take Bill with you, too. And take plenty of supplies with you—I don't want anybody eating anything native till we've had a chance to really test it. And don't go more than a day away—"

"Yes, mother," Danziger said, grinning. Devon glared at him. He turned to go talk to Bill.

"Maybe I should go, too," Julia said. "If there are injuries—"

"If there are injuries—" She broke off, suddenly unable to remember his name. _It starts with D—Danziger! _"—Danziger can call us, and then you can go," Devon said. "But I'm not sending our only doctor out into god knows what. Besides, you're just about done in." She wasn't kidding—Julia looked like she was on the ragged edge.

She nodded reluctantly. "About that," Julia said. "I don't like being this indispensable. I need to start training some people. I was thinking I'd start with Melanie, since she at least has some medical training already."

"Good idea," Devon said absently, watching Danziger, Helen and Bill packing for their expedition. She had a bad feeling about it, but Danziger was absolutely right—they had to find the other pods. _I just wish we knew more before we went tramping around in the wilderness,_ she thought.

"Dr. Heller," Yale's voice said over her headset. "Uly's O2 sats are at 93."

Julia looked sharply at Devon, but she didn't have her gear on, and she was still looking preoccupied with Danziger's preparations. Julia headed for the pod, trying not to run so she wouldn't worry Devon, who had more than enough to worry about at the moment.

Uly's lung function was bouncing around like a six-year-old on a sugar high, and Julia had no idea why. The pod setup had helped for a while, and she'd thought Uly was out of the woods, but it had dropped again. Uly was looking pale, and he seemed sluggish. She hated to do it, given her limited supplies, but she gave him another dose of chlormetrizine, wishing for the thousandth time that she could treat the cause and not just the symptoms.

"Listen, Uly," she said. "You remember the biofeedback techniques Dr. Vasquez taught you?"

He nodded listlessly.

"I need you to try to keep your heart rate steady," she said.

"I'm trying," he said plaintively. "I'm really tired, Julia."

"I know, Uly," she said, trying not to let her worry show. "I'm trying to fix it, okay?"

It took her nearly six hours of adjusting his medications and increasing the oxygen in their makeshift tent before she finally felt like he was stable enough for her to leave him. Devon had called in three times, and Julia had Yale reassure her that Uly was fine, but they needed to keep the pod door shut. She hadn't sounded happy about it, but she'd agreed. In large part due to Yale's reassuring tone. Julia almost wanted to stay in the pod with him just because it made her feel better.

Julia stayed with Yale in the pod for another hour to be sure Uly was stable, or at least that's what she told herself, then forced herself to climb out of the pod.

Devon was sitting by the fire in the late afternoon sun, with a couple of the others sitting beside her. She looked like she was talking on the comm. _Danziger_, Julia thought vaguely. _They must have left already_. She was glad the distraction of the expedition seemed to be keeping Devon from worrying about Uly. She was equally glad that Devon had vetoed her going along with them. _There's no way Melanie could have handled the Uly crisis_, she thought, _and frankly, I'm not sure I could have handled the trip._ She rubbed her eyes, which felt like they'd been sandblasted.

_Melanie! I need to talk to Melanie. I need somebody who can be on call while I get some sleep,_ she thought foggily. _I haven't been this tired since…_ She blinked for a moment, then realized she'd even forgotten what she was thinking. She headed over to where Melanie was still hovering over her tablet, frowning. "Shit," Melanie said under her breath, and tapped some commands into the tablet.

"Do you have a second?" Julia asked.

"What kind of crazy-ass signal is this?" Melanie said, rhetorically, Julia hoped. "I mean, look at this. It's encrypted. But why on earth would an emergency pod beacon be encrypted? And why would it go dead? Those things are supposed to broadcast forever."

"Encrypted?" Julia said curiously, looking over her shoulder at the tablet. The signal data looked oddly familiar to her, though she couldn't for the life of her think why. _I'm no comm—_

The thought cut off, overridden completely by her sudden realization of what she recognized about the signal. She felt a jolt of adrenaline. She looked up, hoping no one else was watching her, and was relieved to see that the rest of the group was paying as little attention to her as Melanie. They were still focused on Devon, who looked like she was trying to contact Danziger's group on their way to find the pod.

_It's a Council encrypted signal,_ she thought, her heart pounding. She'd seen that data before, when her mother had gotten an encrypted message from one of the asteroid stations. _But that's impossible,_ she thought, reeling. _There's no one here to send the signal, and even if there were, who would they be sending it to?_

Julia turned away from Melanie, her heart pounding, and headed for the trees. _I have to think about this,_ she thought, trying to steady herself. _Is it possible there's someone else here?_ She looked up at the sky, half expecting missiles to come raining down on them from an orbiting ship.

_Don't be stupid_, she thought. _There has to be some logical explanation other than a Council ship sent to kill us from space. Maybe the Council had some sort of bug on the ship, and it's still sending out a signal. Or there was a Council agent on the ship, and they're broadcasting it._ But that still didn't explain who they were broadcasting to.

_You have a way to find out_, she thought, and then wondered if she still had it. In all the chaos of the evacuation, she wasn't sure she still had her bag. She headed over to the little dispensary she and Tru had set up and started going through the boxes. _I thought it was here_, she thought, pushing things aside. _There_, she thought, seeing her bag peeking out from under a plastic case. She pulled it out and rummaged through it, trying to find the chip. She finally found it in one of the outside pockets.

She grabbed her headset and turned around, trying to think of where she could go to use it.

"Hey, Heller," Solace called.

_Not now_, she thought, almost crying in her frustration. _Of all the times for him to want to flirt!_ But she walked over. "What is it?" she asked, starting to scan his leg again and trying not to look as impatient as she felt.

"I'm fine," he said. "I just wanted to ask you a question."

"What?" she said warily.

"When was the last time you slept?" he said gently.

It was so unlike him that Julia stared at him for a moment. "What?" she said blankly.

"Sleep, you know, the thing that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care," Solace said, smiling at her, "nature's soft nurse, what we wind up days of toil with—"

"Are you quoting Shakespeare," Julia said slowly. "Or am I hallucinating?"

"Either way, I think you should probably get some sleep," Solace said. "It's been what—at least 24 hours, right?" He remembered Melanie saying something about her having worked all night right before the crash. "Or is it longer?"

Julia found herself trying to remember. She'd fallen asleep on her desk—_No, that was before we went into coldsleep._

"Man, Heller, if you have to think that hard about it, you definitely need some rack time," Solace said, and he actually sounded concerned. "You could lie down here," he added, and he was back to his predictable old self.

"Not a chance, Solace," she said.

"Seriously," he said. "Get some sleep, okay? You're no good to anybody if you can't think straight, right?"

_He's right_, she thought, and nodded reluctantly. _But I have to see what this signal is about first_.

"I can see those wheels turning," Solace said warningly, "so don't you try to scam me. I want to see your eyes closed."

"I will, I promise. I just need to…you know," she gestured vaguely off into the trees.

"Study trees?" he said archly.

"Exactly," she said, and left before he could say anything else embarrassing. She headed back behind the pod where they'd already dug a makeshift latrine, and then headed straight back into the trees behind it.

_This is ridiculous_, she thought. _There's no way the Council can be here. You're jumping at shadows._

_But what if I'm not?_ she thought. _I have to find out for sure._

She looked around to see if there was anyone watching, feeling a wave of guilt at sneaking around like this. _I'll tell them once I know what it really is_, she thought. _And if it's nothing, then I won't have worried them._ She plugged her secure encrypted chip into the headset and flipped the VR eyepiece into place, hoping that there would be nothing to see.

The world around her dissolved and was replaced by a sterile blue room. Julia looked around, but there was no one there. "Uh…hello?" she said quietly, hoping her voice wouldn't carry far back in the real world.

There was a flare of light in front of her, then a column of static that coalesced into a young, almost baby-faced man she didn't recognize. She took an involuntary step backwards.

"Well, this is a pleasant surprise," he said, smiling winningly. "I'm so glad to see you're all right, Dr. Heller."

_Well, there goes the neighborhood_, Julia thought giddily. _Hell, I traveled 22 light years to get away from these people. Can't they take a hint?_ "I'm more than a bit surprised myself," she said carefully. "I thought we were the only people on G-889."

The man nodded. "About a year before the Eden Project set its launch date, the Council determined that it would be prudent to have a backup plan for your group," he said. "Now it looks like that was a very lucky decision. And even luckier that we went ahead with the deployment of the satellite relaying your signal. I'm Brendan Riley. And I've heard a great deal about you." He glanced to his side, as though he'd heard something. "I have someone here who is going to be very pleased to see you," and there was a flare of light next to him, which coalesced into a woman's form.

_And I'm officially through the looking glass, and here's the Queen of Hearts, right on cue,_ Julia thought. _Of __course__ she's here._ "Hello, mother," she said, and was proud when it came out sounding almost normal.

"Julia!" she said, and there was a flicker of something in her eyes, and it was so foreign to her it took Julia a moment to identify it. _She's __scared_, Julia thought, stunned, and for some reason that frightened her more than anything she'd dealt with yet.

* * *

"Well, Adair, I've got some good news and some bad news," Danziger said over the comm.

"Give me the good news first—I've had enough bad lately," Devon said tiredly.

"We found one of the escape pods, and it's intact. We've got another month's worth of emergency rations for a full load, another medical kit, and if we can figure out a way to transport it, another hundred liters of water," Danziger said. "Plus eight more comm headsets, with spare power packs, another solar panel, and any of the equipment we can salvage from the pod. I think I may even be able to pull the fusion power plant."

Devon already knew what the bad news was. "Is the pod broadcasting its emergency beacon?" she said, postponing it as long as possible.

"Nope, not now anyway," Danziger said. "But I can read ours from here, so hopefully some of the others will pick it up and come to find us. Which brings me to the bad news. We found Martin and his wife."

"Hey!" Devon heard Martin say in the background.

"And they were alone in the pod?" Devon said.

"Yep," Danziger said grimly. "So you might want to prepare our people. We're on our way back with them and as much as we could carry. The pod's about a three-hour hike from ours, so we can make a couple of trips to get the rest of the gear. We're about a klick from you now."

_Which means ten minutes, tops_, Devon thought. She pulled off the headset and glanced at Melanie, who'd come over to listen in. She shook her head. "You don't need to worry about me—I'm a lover, not a fighter. And Alonzo's in no condition to go after them. The ones I'd've been worried most about are already out there—Danziger, Helen and Bill."

Devon nodded her thanks. "Listen up, people!" she called, and the remainder of the group gathered around. Devon frowned. "Where's Dr. Heller?" she said.

"I think she went to the, uh," Rob said, gesturing vaguely back at the pod.

Devon sighed. _I'll just have to grab her as soon as she gets back—though I doubt I have much to worry about from her._ "Okay, so Danziger's people found one of our pods," she said.

Toshiko beamed, but the others noticed Devon's expression. "It's Martin, isn't it?" Valerie said.

Devon nodded. "And his wife. They're bringing back a load from the pod, and we'll need some folks to make another trip to help bring back the rest of it. We'll to that first thing tomorrow. In the meantime, I need to know that you're all going to handle this with some tact."

"Tact?" Rick snapped. "The man launched without a full load—people got left behind!"

Devon nodded. "I know, Rick. Believe me, I'm not a Morgan Martin fan either, but the fact remains that we are in a very precarious situation. We may need all the warm bodies we can get before this is over. And I'm not about to start out our new colony with a lynch mob. Is that clear?"

There were a few rebellious looks, particularly from Valerie Carter—_she's certainly living up to the redhead reputation for temper_, Devon thought—but after a while, everyone nodded.

"Good," Devon said, relieved.

* * *

Julia pulled off her VR headset, grabbed a stick next to her and swung it furiously at the trunk of a tree. It shattered satisfyingly, but it was hardly enough to dent the blazing fury that was building in her. Julia took a deep breath, trying to calm down, but her frustration and confusion over the situation seemed to have reached the boiling point. She grabbed another, larger stick and swung it harder. It hit solidly, sending a painful sting up her arm, and she swung it again, imagining the target as Brendan Riley's sweet face. She swung it a third time, and it broke apart in her hands. She leaned her head against the tree, breathing hard. _God, I don't know what to do, and I'm so tired…_

She got up finally and made herself walk back to the camp, not wanting to worry any of them with her absence, but she walked slowly, trying to get a handle on her emotions. Just as the top of the pod came into view, she heard voices. They didn't sound happy. She hurried forward, came around the curve of the pod, and saw Danziger, Helen and Bill standing with their faces lit by the burning fire in the early twilight.

With Morgan Martin and his wife Bess beside them.

Julia remembered later that she'd always heard people talk about seeing red when they were angry, but she'd never experienced it until that moment—not even when she'd been at her angriest with her mother. One moment she was looking at Martin, and the next she was charging forward, ready to hit him.

"Woah!" Martin yelled as Julia came running at him. "Hey, somebody call off the dog!"

"Who exactly are you calling a dog?" Devon said tightly.

"You bastard!" Julia said, skidding wildly to a stop in front of him, since Danziger was still almost in her way. She turned to Danziger. "Did he launch without a full load? Is Melanie right?"

"Oh, yeah," Danziger said. "There's no question."

"You bastard!" Julia snarled, shoving past him towards Martin.

He backed away, holding his hands up defensively. "Wait, you don't understand. It was an accident—I really didn't mean to launch—"

"That's a load of bull," Danziger said. "You have to work pretty damned hard to launch an emergency pod. The launch lever has to be pulled up."

"You looked right at me as you pulled it, too," Melanie said, coming up next to Julia. "And I was yelling at you to stop! You knew exactly what you were doing."

Martin looked like he'd eaten something unpleasant. "But I didn't. I thought there were plenty of pods. I mean, what kind of ship only has enough spots on the escape pods for the existing passengers?" He looked around pleadingly for support.

"The kind of ship we could afford," Devon said acidly. "Something you were well aware of, Mr. Martin." She immediately kicked herself for saying it, knowing she should be the one trying to defuse the situation, not make it worse. _But he's just so damned annoying_, she thought.

"How could you do it?" Julia was saying, almost talking over Devon's response. She'd tried to get control of herself for a moment, but finally thought, _Screw it. I'm done holding it together._ "There were sixty people on board that ship. Sixty! And you launched with eight empty seats! How could you, knowing there had to be people who got left behind?" She found herself thinking of Jeff blushing as he asked her for a date, and had to fight the urge to hit Martin right then.

"I'm sorry," Martin said placatingly. "I really didn't understand. It was a chaotic situation, the alarms went off, and all I could think of was protecting my wife." He gestured at Bess, who didn't look at all like she wanted to be protected at that moment.

Julia tilted her head to the side, her eyes narrowing. "Don't you dare hide behind her, you cowardly piece of shit!" Her voice rose with every word. "She's twice the human being you are, and I don't even know her!"

"Nice," Helen said admiringly.

Bess blushed bright red, and Martin went white, but Devon couldn't tell if he was angry or afraid. And clearly Julia didn't care.

"Please," Bess said. "He really meant no harm—"

"No harm?" Julia said incredulously. "No harm!"

"Look, I'm not used to being talked to this way!" he snapped. "I am the Council Liaison to this Project, and—"

Devon was glad Martin had diverted Julia's attention back to him instead of his wife, though she was certain his mentioning the Council was the worst thing he could have said. She starting to wonder just how far Julia was going to go, and looked around to make sure there weren't any sharp objects close at hand.

"Oh, there's no doubt here that you're with the Council," Julia said, her voice dripping with contempt. "You're just like all the rest of them, self-centered, narcissistic, egomaniacal…" She stopped, trying to catch her breath, and she was breathing like she'd run a race.

Devon stepped forward at that moment, trying to intercede before things got completely out of hand. "Julia, I think that's—" she started to say gently, but Julia barreled on.

"Oh, no," she said, shaking her head and putting up her hand to stop Devon, never taking her eyes off Martin. "No. It's not nearly enough. You all pretend that you know what's best for everyone, but all you can see is what's best for you. You sail through life," she said, stepping forward, her finger poking savagely at Martin's chest, "manipulating everyone around you to get what you want, never thinking about anybody else, never thinking about the damage you cause. And for what?"

"Danziger," Devon said. "I think maybe we need to—" Devon began, but Danziger was looking like he just wanted to cheer Julia on.

"What the hell makes you think that your life could possibly be worth more than anyone else's," Julia continued, "let alone someone like Commander O'Neill or Jeff Sawyer?"

"She definitely has a point there," Danziger said, looking at Devon, shrugging.

"You filthy, stinking, bottom-feeding, blood-sucking—" Julia was saying, poking Martin's chest with every word.

"Danziger," Devon said emphatically, and it looked like he was finally starting to realize how dangerous the situation really was, and not just for Martin.

"Easy there, Doc, I think he gets the point," Danziger said, stepping towards her.

Martin reached up to push her away, and she reared back, cocking her arm like she was about to throw a punch, and Danziger grabbed her in a bear hug. "Come on, Doc. Ease down," he said, trying to push her back, but she was struggling wildly.

"Let me go!" she shouted.

"Julia!" Devon said, trying to get her attention, but she wasn't listening.

"I will kill you!" she hissed at Martin, her blue eyes almost black with rage, and with a sudden surge of strength she almost broke free from Danziger's grip. He skidded in the dirt, struggling to hold on to her.

Suddenly she looked surprised, blinked once, then her eyes rolled back. Danziger almost toppled over as she abruptly stopped fighting him, then got his balance. He eased her down, cradling the back of her head with one hand as he laid her gently on the ground.

"I want her arrested!" Martin said, looking defiantly at Devon, who ignored him.

"Morgan, don't," Bess said, grabbing onto his arm.

Melanie stood over Julia's unconscious body, holding a hypospray in her left hand. She looked steadily at Martin. "You are damned lucky I care more about her than I do about you," she said.


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: The pace of posting will slow a bit after this one. I have some edits I'm working on for the next several chapters. I'm trying for once a week from here on out. But since I got a review (squeeeeee!) I'm going ahead and posting this one now. Thanks, Joan Powers! And let that be a lesson for all of you lurkers. :-)_

* * *

Earth Two

Chapter 3: My, What Big Teeth…

Julia was finally sleeping peacefully, lying next to Solace. There was no tension in her face, and Devon was both surprised and concerned, because she was fairly certain she'd never seen Julia look even close to this relaxed. _And I thought __I__ was wound tight_, she thought.

"She looks a lot different when she's sleeping, doesn't she?" Solace said, echoing her thoughts.

"As far as I know, she hadn't slept since before we crashed," Melanie said, and it was clear to Devon she felt bad about not looking after Julia better. "I think it's likely she hadn't since we got out of coldsleep. And remember, she was one of the first out. That's almost 60 hours." _Not to mention that they've been extremely stressful hours_, Devon thought. Melanie shrugged. "I sedated her mainly because I was afraid she'd hurt herself or Danziger going after Martin. I'll stand by my decision. And I'd be willing to bet, once she gets some rest, she'll understand. She won't be happy," Melanie said, looking a little nervous, "but I think she'll understand."

"I hope you're right," Devon said, not entirely convinced.

"I think it was good that she went after Martin like that," Solace said seriously. "She's been bottling up everything—the stress of the crash, not to mention everything that went before it, then losing O'Neill, and finding out about Sawyer…" He shook his head. "It was only a matter of time before she blew. At least it was directed at somebody who really deserved it."

"So what do we do about him?" Danziger said, nodding at Martin, who was sitting under a tree with Bess. He looked nervous.

Everyone was keeping their distance from him, but Devon wondered how long it would be till somebody else went after him. She had to admit, she almost wanted to herself. "We have to find a way to live with him," Devon said finally. "Whatever he might have done, I don't think Bess was responsible, and I'm not about to ask her to abandon him. And it's not like we're in a position to start throwing people out the metaphorical airlock. I've already spoken to everybody here about that except Julia, and you three," she said, gesturing at Danziger, Bill and Helen.

Danziger looked disgusted, but he didn't argue the point. "At least we know he can carry stuff, if he's…motivated." Devon hated to think what motivation Danziger meant. "He helped us cart all that stuff back from his pod. He might be useful. And his wife seems nice enough. God knows how she ended up with him, though."

"We'll need to clear the air," Melanie said. "Otherwise, it'll just fester till somebody does something worse than use harsh language."

Devon nodded reluctantly. "It'll have to wait till Julia's awake," she said, quietly, looking down at her sleeping form. "We need her buy-in on this more than anybody else's—if she says she can accept him in the group, then we may have a chance of making this work."

"And if she can't?" Danziger said, and it sounded like he was almost hoping for that.

"We'll burn that bridge when we come to it," Devon said, hoping that she wouldn't have to answer that question. "How long will she be out?" she asked Melanie.

"I have no idea," Melanie said. "The sedative should wear off in about four hours, judging from how it worked on Alonzo. But she needs a lot more than four hours of sleep. And we are bloody well going to let her wake up on her own." She looked hard at each of them till they nodded. "Good."

"In the meantime," Devon said, "we need to make a few decisions. First, do we stay here? Or do we try to find the other escape pods and, hopefully, the supply pods?"

"I think we at least have to look around the area," Danziger said. "I mean, we found Morgan's pod within a day's walk. It's a good bet there are others nearby. I think we should send out a couple of teams to search."

"I think it's pretty much crucial that we try to find the supply pods," Melanie said. "Julia was concerned about the medical supplies. If we don't find those pods, we could run out of some fairly important stuff before the colony ship gets here."

"Then I think it's a given that we need to send out search teams. Would any of you be willing to take Martin with you?" Devon said carefully.

There was dead silence for a moment, and some of them looked sidelong at each other. "Aw, hell, I will," Danziger said. "I've already had to put up with him whining for four hours. I think I can handle him. And I'm betting Helen or Bill would be okay with it, if we want to stick with teams of three."

Devon sighed inwardly, relieved. It would save her a lot of headaches if she could keep Martin away from the others as much as possible till tempers cooled. "Okay, let's plan on getting a systematic search started tomorrow morning. Until then, I think we need to set up a couple of the emergency shelters from the pod. We can start by getting one set up over Solace and Julia. For the time being, I think this is going to be home. I don't think we want to try to do any large-scale traveling until we either find one of the supply pods with the vehicles or Solace's leg heals."

Solace looked glum. "Sorry, everybody," he said.

"Don't be," Melanie said. "Feel free to blame Martin for it, though." She grinned.

* * *

"I've never seen her like that," Toshiko said, shaking her head as she sat by the fire. "I've worked with her for over a year, and she's never lost control. Not once. Not even when Heiberg yelled at her for fifteen minutes straight."

"I sure can't blame her," Rob said. "You all saw how hard she's taking O'Neill's death."

"She has to feel bad about that," Valerie said. "I mean, it was one of the cases of medical gear that hit him."

"Come on, Valerie, that's not her fault," Helen said. "Hell, O'Neill's the one who told Solace to pull the launch lever before the gear was stowed away."

"I didn't mean it was," Valerie said defensively. "I'm just saying I'd feel responsible if it were me. That can't be easy to deal with. Plus the fact that the Council tried to kill us all. I mean, think about it—her own mother signed off on killing her own daughter? It's a wonder she didn't snap sooner."

"You don't know that," Toshiko said. "There are fifty people on the Council. Who knows what her mother knew?"

"Are you serious?" Valerie said.

"I heard she hadn't spoken to her mother for years," Helen said pointedly.

"It's true," Toshiko said. "Her mother didn't want her working for Dr. Harrison on the Syndrome." She shook her head. "I asked her about it once. All she said was that one of the reasons she'd signed on with the Eden Project was so she could get away from questions about her mother."

"And here we are still talking about it," Rob said. "Maybe we should stop."

"Has anybody talked to any of the crew of the ship about what happened?" Toshiko asked. "This has to be difficult for them—they weren't expecting to get shipwrecked."

"They seem to be dealing with it okay," Valerie said. "That guy Danziger acts like this is just one more dirty job he got stuck with by the powers that be."

"Even so," Toshiko said, "maybe we should talk about it."

"Tosh, I know it's hard for you to understand, but sometimes talking only makes things worse," Valerie said, and amazingly, she didn't say it sarcastically.

* * *

_This tent is driving me crazy_, Alonzo thought, staring up at the same spot on the canopy he'd been staring at for the last 12 hours. _Oh come on, Solace, it isn't just the tent driving you crazy._ Heller hadn't moved for the first six hours, and after that, she'd only rolled to her side. Unfortunately, that had given him a very good view of her face.

She wasn't the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen—she had sort of non-descript shoulder-length light brown hair that had a tendency to fall in her face, which explained why she usually pulled it back. _It might be the eyes_, he thought, imagining the pale blue color, but there was something about her even when her eyes were closed. After he'd spent almost an hour studying her, he'd started to get nervous. He'd only gotten this hung up on a woman once before, and it hadn't ended well. But he couldn't seem to stop thinking about her.

Julia stirred, and Alonzo sat up, wincing as his leg shifted, and looked over at her. "Heller?" he whispered tentatively. It had been almost 14 hours since she'd been awake, and he'd been starting to worry, but he didn't want to wake her if she was still asleep.

Julia opened her eyes and looked up at him, then frowned. "Please tell me I was dreaming," she said, and she sounded like she was about to cry.

Alonzo swallowed, then decided she didn't need serious at the moment. "Well, you were sleeping next to me," he said, smiling winningly at her. "That's kind of dreamy."

She looked at him for a long time, then shook her head and looked away.

"Hey," Melanie said, coming into the tent and seeing Julia awake. "I thought I heard something. How are you?"

"I think I'm going crazy," Julia said, staring blindly at the wall of the tent, and for a moment Melanie was really worried, because she sounded serious.

"You're not crazy, Heller," Alonzo said, reaching over to touch her arm. "Just a little stressed out."

"First, Alonzo was quoting Shakespeare, and then—" Julia said.

"Well, if you're calling him Alonzo and he was quoting Shakespeare, I'm betting on that part being a dream. The rest, however…" Melanie said tentatively, though she was relieved Julia seemed able to joke.

"Hey, the Shakespeare part really happened," Alonzo protested.

"Then—" Julia began, then clearly stopped herself from saying something.

"Yes," Melanie said, "you really did say all those things to Morgan Martin."

"I have to say, you were pretty creative, Heller," Alonzo said. "I particularly liked the 'filthy, stinking, bottom-feeding, blood-sucking' part."

Julia put her hand over her eyes. "I can't believe I almost…" She stopped, took her hand away and looked hard up at Melanie. "You sedated me," she said, though Melanie was relieved it didn't sound like an accusation.

She nodded, bracing herself for Julia's anger, but it didn't happen.

Julia blushed, sat up, and looked back up at Melanie. "Thank you," she said seriously. "Honestly, I wouldn't have minded about hitting Martin, but I might have..." She looked worried. "Adair's going to be so mad at me."

Melanie smiled, noticing it was Devon she was most worried about, not Danziger. Or Martin. "Somehow I doubt that. Seriously, Julia, you didn't say anything that the rest of us weren't thinking. Maybe a little more eloquently than some," she said, "but it'd be hard for any of us to hold it against you. No, the only thing Devon was at all concerned about was, well, how…out of control you got."

Julia flushed again.

"Look, Heller…Julia," Alonzo said, "about that."

Julia turned to look over at him, surprised to hear him use her first name.

"You can't let it get that bad again," he said earnestly. "I know your type—you take your feelings, shove them in a closet and pretend they're not there—but it's not a good idea. They're gonna come out, and it's better not to wait so long the closet door hits somebody when it opens. I know you probably don't want to talk to me, but you need to find somebody to talk to."

Julia nodded. "I know," she said, and for the second time in a matter of minutes, she found herself fighting back tears. "This isn't the first time I've been told that." _Though I think this time I had more justification for losing it than I've ever had before,_ she thought, trying not to think about everything that had led up to her confrontation with Martin. _I just can't deal with that right now._

"As long as we're in the soul-bearing mode," Melanie said dryly, "we need to talk about your sleep habits, or lack thereof."

Julia started to look slightly rebellious. "What was I supposed to do? I had to—"

"You get help," Melanie interrupted. "There were a dozen people out there dying to help you, but they didn't know what to do. You can't take it all on yourself like that again. We have a lot of very smart, very capable people here. Use them."

_God, I wish I could_, Julia thought sickly. _What am I going to __do__?_

Melanie frowned, wondering if Julia was still paying attention—she still seemed a little unfocused. "Damn it, Julia, you were about this close to collapse," she said, holding her fingers close together. "What if something else had happened, and you weren't able to deal with it? You're the only doctor we have, which means you have a responsibility to take care of yourself. Our lives depend on it," she finished, feeling slightly foolish for sounding so dramatic, but the point seemed to have gotten through.

"Okay, you're right," Julia said, holding her hands up in surrender. "I'm sorry. I'll try to do better."

"You'll do more than that," Melanie said. "You'll listen to us when we tell you stuff in the future, okay?"

Julia looked appraisingly at Melanie. "I promise I will listen to you," she said pointedly.

"Hey, I gave you solid advice, Heller," Alonzo said, so relieved to hear her make a joke, he decided to let her off the hook. "It's not my fault you're too blinded by my obvious charms to recognize it."

Julia ignored him, standing up. "Please tell me there's food outside, Melanie," she said. "I'm starving."

"Well, there are emergency rations," Melanie said. "I'm not sure I'd call them food…"

"They'll do," Julia said, and ducked out of the tent.

Julia blinked in the sunshine, and then noticed that most of the group was sitting around the fireplace. And they were all looking at her. _Oh, this is going to be awkward_, she thought nervously, though she was relieved to see that neither Martin nor his wife were anywhere in sight.

Then Rick stood up, came over to her and shook her hand. "I owe you one, Dr. Heller," he said. "If you hadn't done it, I would have, and I might not have been as gentle as you were."

"I know I wouldn't," Rob said, coming up and dragging Julia over to the fire. Melanie shot him a grateful look.

"Don't," Julia said, embarrassed beyond belief. "I never should have let it go that far."

"No, you shouldn't," Devon said, coming up from the pod. "And I hope it won't ever happen again," she added gently.

"It won't," Julia said, wishing she could melt into the ground. Then she had a bad thought. "How long was I—how is Uly?"

Devon held up her hand. "He's fine. Yale has been keeping an eye on him with Melanie's help, and his O2 sats are back up."

Julia sighed in relief. "I'm so sorry, Devon."

"Hey, it's all right," Devon said, putting her hand on Julia's shoulder. "Everybody's fine, even Martin, so you can relax."

"Where is Martin?" Julia said, turning to look for him. It was clear to Devon she was uncomfortable with the physical contact, so she let her go. "I really should apologize—"

"Like hell you should," Helen cut in.

Julia held up her hand to stop her. "No, really, I feel pretty awful about it. I'm really not like that, at least not under normal circumstances."

"Oh, like these are normal circumstances?" Rob said. "Actually, Dr. Heller, I think most of us let off some steam vicariously through you. I sure feel better."

"Well, somebody else will have to do it for you next time," Julia said. "And I think after you've seen me completely lose my cool, you could call me Julia. So, where's Martin?"

"Sorry, Dr—Julia," Rob said. "He went with Danziger and Bill to scout. We thought it'd be good for him to get away for a while." He grinned. "The fact that he thought we were sending him out for them to dump him off a cliff was just a bonus."

* * *

Danziger clambered up a steep slope and stopped at the top, looking out over an enormous distance. Their pod had crashed just to the northwest, and they'd headed for this ridge. They'd hiked all day, camped overnight, and started up the hill again in the morning, hoping the high ground would give them a good vantage point. _And it sure did_, Danziger thought, bringing up the monocular to scan the landscape in front of him.

"Wow," Bill said. "I knew this place was big, but…"

"Ow!" Martin whimpered, sitting down on a rock and taking off one shoe. He didn't seem at all interested in the view. "I think I'm getting a blister!"

Bill rolled his eyes and Danziger grinned sidelong at him, then went back to scanning the horizon.

"Anything?" Bill said.

"Not so—" Danziger began, then froze. "Wait, I got something. Check it out." He handed Bill the monocular and pointed. "Down there, see where that big rock thing is? Just to the left of—"

"Yeah, baby!" Bill said. "That's a supply pod!"

"Come on, Martin," Danziger said, grabbing the monocular from Bill and hanging it back over his head.

"But I have—" Martin began, then stopped when he saw Danziger's face. He shoved his shoe back on, muttering, "This has got to stop at some point. How long am I supposed to pay for one little mistake?"

Danziger turned, grabbed his shirt, and pulled him close. "Until you make up for O'Neill ending up in a shallow grave, you whiny bastard. Or until I let the Doc finish what she started. Now move."

Martin's face went white, but he followed Danziger and Bill down the ridge.

* * *

Melanie poked her head into the tent where Julia was scanning Alonzo's leg. "Did you hear? Danziger found one of the supply pods!"

Julia's head shot up. "Did they say which one?" she said. "What's in it?"

Melanie shook her head. "They're just on their way to it now. I'll let you know when I hear something more." She ducked back out.

"Please let it be Fifteen…or Twelve," she breathed, looking back at the scans.

"What's in those?" Alonzo said, curious.

"Twelve has four cases of the medical equipment," she said absently. "But I'm really hoping for Fifteen. It has a synthlab, and it also has some of the hydroponics. And vehicles. Since you'd have to launch them in order, it had to be one of the last, so I figure it's probably the one that landed closest to us. Seven would be as good—it has the other synthlab, but I don't think it's as likely."

"You remember what's in the supply pods?" Alonzo said, frowning. "There's fifteen of them, each of them packed full of stuff to keep this project going for two years, and you remember what's in them?"

Julia looked up at him, and she looked like she was bracing for something. "Genetically enhanced memory," she said quietly.

"Oh," Alonzo said. "Well, that's not the only thing they enhanced with you."

"Will you stop it?" she said, glaring at him.

"All I meant was you seem to be a really good doctor," Alonzo said, looking hurt.

Julia looked surprised, and then ashamed. "Sorry—I shouldn't have assumed—"

"But now that you mention it, you do have really nice—"

"Don't say it!" she snapped, standing up and grabbing her med kit. "Honestly, you are so—" She closed her eyes, took a breath, stormed out of the tent and almost ran over Bess Martin.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Bess said, "I should be watching where I'm going."

Julia pulled up short, holding her med kit in front of her like a shield, wishing she'd had a chance to prepare herself for this. "No, don't, it was entirely my fault," she said. She took a breath and plunged onward. "Mrs. Martin, I'm so sorry. I meant to come and find you sooner, so I could—"

"For heaven's sake, Mrs. Martin sounds so formal. Call me Bess," she said with a winning smile, though it faded as she continued. "And actually, I came looking for you. I wanted to apologize."

Julia blinked, frowning. "Why? I'm the one who nearly—"

"You had every reason to," Bess said, looking ashamed. "What Morgan did was wrong, and it had terrible consequences, and I'm very, very sorry. I just wanted you to know that. I'll do my best to make sure Morgan and I both work to make up for it. And if either one of us ever disappoints you again, you have my permission to deck us both." She smiled again, turned and walked away, leaving Julia speechless in her wake.

* * *

"Will you look at that!" Bill said, grinning. The supply pod was intact, without even any scorching from the trip through the atmosphere.

"She's a thing of beauty, all right," Danziger said. "Let's get her open."

"Did you hear something?" Martin said, looking nervous.

Danziger ignored him, popping open the access panel and punching in the unlock code. There was a whoosh of air out of the main door, and then it folded out from the top, lowering like a drawbridge.

"Oh, baby, come to papa," Danziger breathed, looking rapturously at the big wheeled machine inside.

"The Transrover!" Bill said. "Oh, we got lucky! Really, really lucky!"

"And an ATV," Danziger said, running up the ramp. "Damn, you aren't kidding, man! We've got wheels!"

"Uh, guys," Martin said uneasily, hearing movement coming through the brush below the supply pod.

"One of the hydroponics cases!" Bill said, looking at the cases lining the walls around the vehicles. "And there's medical stuff, too—Doctor Heller's gonna flip—"

"Guys!" Martin yelped as he saw movement in the bushes. He ran up the ramp. "There's something out there!"

"Danziger?" a man's voice called, and Danziger whirled.

"Hardy!" he said, and ran down the ramp to wrap the man standing at the bottom in a bear hug. There were more people coming around the side of the supply pod, grinning happily. "Where'd you guys come from?"

"Our pod came down just south of here," he said. "We got the supply pod signal and came looking."

"Is this all of you?" Danziger said, looking around and counting.

"Yep," Hardy said. "All ten of us. We figured it was better to stick together, and since our escape pod wasn't broadcasting, we decided we'd better go looking instead of staying put. How about you?"

"We've got fifteen so far," Danziger said. "Our pod, plus the one Martin here was in." Hardy caught the weird tone in Danziger's voice and noticed Martin trying to melt into the background.

"I have some bad news," Hardy said. "I was getting my pod loaded, and saw the one next to us launch, but it was the one farthest to the stern, and I think the launch bay must have taken some damage. The pod got hung up part of the way out. I don't think they made it."

"Damn," Danziger said. "Did they have a full load?"

"Yeah," Hardy said grimly.

Danziger shook his head. "Well, our pod is about a day's hike back thataway." He pointed up the ridge. "We've got a man injured, so we've just been sending out scouts so far. I think we should use our escape pod as base camp, since it is broadcasting, and see if we can find the last pod from there. We can leave a message on the supply pod manifest with directions to our pod."

"You aren't gonna get this baby up there," Hardy said, looking dubiously at the Transrover's bulk.

"Yeah, we're gonna have to find another way around," Danziger said. He tapped his gear. "Hey, Mel, you there?"

"Yes," she said over the gear. "What do you have for me, Danziger?"

"Happy birthday, Mel! We've got vehicles, supplies, and one of the other escape pods with ten more of our people."

"Wow! What the heck am I supposed to do for your birthday, then?" she said, and Danziger could hear the grin.

"You'll think of something. Listen, we need to figure out an alternate route back. We've got the Transrover, and we'll need it to get all these supplies back to the camp, but it won't go the way we came."

"Well, between what you've been telling me and what Helen and Rick found on their scout to the west, I think I have a pretty good fix on where we are," Melanie said. "It looks like we're in a cleft in some foothills at the base of these mountains to the north. I think if you head south about ten klicks, it'll flatten out, and then you can swing around and come back north to us."

"I sure hope you're right, Mel," Danziger sighed. "It's gonna take us awhile to get everything loaded, and even longer to take the scenic route back. You'd better tell Adair."

"Oh, fine, make me tell her," Melanie huffed. "Like any of this is my fault!"

* * *

Julia sighed as she sorted through another page of inventory late the next morning. Danziger and his daughter had been thorough, which only made it worse. _I don't have half of the things I need_, she thought grimly. _God help us if we run into another emergency like O'Neill. _She winced again at the memory and forced herself to turn back to the list.

As she paged down on the tablet, she had a horrible thought. _This is one of the med kit tablets. Not the one from my lab. Did I—?_ She paged down wildly, scanning the list. _Oh, no._

She turned and began rifling through the boxes of supplies. After several minutes of fruitless searching, she gave up. _I don't have any of the medical records,_ she thought. _Not a single one._ She groaned inwardly. She was sure they could reconstruct the important things, but it would take time. She'd have to interview everyone in the group, or at least the ones she hadn't reviewed before the crash.

Julia began mentally listing everyone in the group and visualizing the records, then decided she needed to put together a medical database before she began trying to reconstruct anything. _Maybe I can get Valerie Carter to help with that_, she thought. _She's the primary tech support for Eden Advance. We could set up a form so Melanie could take medical histories. I could give her one of the med kit tablets—or better yet, maybe there's a spare somewhere we could—_

"Doctor Heller?" Bess said, poking her head into the med tent, "have you seen Tru?"

Julia looked up, shaking herself out of her reverie. "No, I haven't. She's not with Uly?"

Bess shook her head, looking worried. "Toshiko said she had been, but they were working on math, and—"

"—and Tru hates math," Julia finished wryly. "Did you check with Mel? She seemed kind of interested in the comm gear."

Bess nodded. "Mel hasn't seen her in almost an hour. I was supposed to be looking after her, but she snuck off while I was working on cataloging the supplies."

Julia frowned, then grabbed her comm gear and put it on. "Devon?" she said.

"Go ahead," Devon said.

"Is Tru with you and Rob?"

"No," Devon said, frowning. "Why?"

"We can't seem to find her," Julia said, hoping she hadn't just gotten Tru into trouble for nothing.

"Oh, for—" Devon said. "Okay, Rob and I are on our way back. We'll be there in ten. Keep looking for her in the camp."

Julia sighed. "Let's go," she said to Bess.

They turned the camp upside down in the time it took Devon and Rob to get back, with no luck. "I'm going to kill her," Julia said under her breath.

"Get in line," Devon said. "Okay, so we're going to do this in teams—nobody goes out alone," she said briskly to the gathered group. "Rob, you and Tosh head up the ridge. Valerie, you and Rick head just to the west of that. Bess, you and Julia will head east. Mel and I will go south. Stay in constant contact over the gear. The moment you find her, let everyone know."

"And try not to mention her name over the gear till you do find her," Melanie put in. "The last thing we need is for Danziger to pick up on this and go ballistic."

Julia set off toward the river with Bess trotting along beside her. "Okay," Bess said. "If I were an eleven-year-old girl with a knack for getting into trouble, where would I hide?"

"She was pretty fascinated by the water," Julia said. "Maybe she just followed the river downstream."

"I do hope she didn't cross it. The water's cold," Bess said.

_Please don't let her be as much a pain as her husband_, Julia thought. _This is a bad enough situation already._ Then she felt bad for thinking it. To be fair, Bess was right about the water. Julia had finally washed the blood off her face and hair early that morning, and it had been shockingly, painfully cold. Which had felt to Julia like a tiny bit of penance.

They got to the river and Julia started along the bank, looking for footprints in the mud. There was a spot about thirty meters down where there were a couple of rocks sticking out of the river midway across. _Those look close enough to jump to_, Julia thought, _especially for Tru._ She shaded her eyes against the bright morning sun, trying to see if there were any footprints on the other side.

"Look here," Bess said, pointing at the bank near the rocks. There was definitely a footprint.

"I guess we're crossing," Julia said, resigned. "Devon, it's Julia. I think we might have something. It looks like she crossed the river over here."

"Got it," Devon said. "Everybody, turn east. We'll circle around and pick you up from the north and south. Hopefully that'll let us find her faster."

"I don't know if I can jump that far," Bess said uneasily.

"It's not so bad," Julia said. She backed up to take a running start, hit the first rock, pushed off to the second, teetered for a moment on it, then leaped to the far bank. "See?"

Bess still looked nervous, but she followed Julia's lead and made it across. "Well, that was exciting!" she said. "Which way do you think she went?"

Julia shook her head. "It doesn't look like she followed the river either way, so let's head straight east. Hopefully if she did turn, the others will pick her up."

Bess nodded. "And we can take a look around while we go—I don't think anybody has really scouted much over here yet," she said and scrambled up the bank in front of Julia. _Well, she's certainly trying_, Julia thought.

They walked through a field of grass, and Julia found herself wondering what else there might be in the field. They'd been very lucky so far given how little they knew about the planet's fauna. There might be poisonous creatures, large predators, and even something innocuous could cause life-threatening damage. _Stop it_, she told herself. _She's fine—we just need to find her. And when we do, I'm going to let her have it for scaring us like this._

"Tru!" Bess called. "Where are you?"

There was no answer. _I swear,_ Julia thought grimly, _you'd better be in big trouble, or you're __going__ to be in big trouble._

"Tru!" she called. "Come on, Tru. Where are you?"

"I'm over here," they heard faintly. "I could use a little help."

Julia frowned, glancing at Bess. She started towards Tru's voice. "Keep talking," she called.

"Bad…idea," Tru called tentatively. There was a long pause, and Julia reached the treeline with Bess close behind. "I don't think it…likes noise."

_It?_ Julia thought with a sinking feeling, trying to see into the trees. The sun filtering through the leaves made it hard to pick out any details, but she thought she saw a flash of movement.

"Bess," she said quietly. "Hang back a little."

"Wait, Dr. Heller, I don't think that's—"

"It's Julia," she said. "And Tru is in trouble. I'd rather have a backup plan. Just keep your eyes open and be ready to run. Okay?"

Bess's eyes went wide, as if she was taking Julia's command literally, and she nodded. Julia started forward into the trees, trying not to make noise. After about ten meters, she glanced back. Bess had followed her a little way in. "Be careful!" she whispered.

Julia nodded, and turned back. "Tru?" she called.

"Over…here," she called. The first word was loud, the second trailed off to nothing.

Julia headed for it, trying to see through the dense forest.

She saw the creature first. It about four feet high, maybe a little more—certainly taller than Tru. It seemed to be mostly body, though it was hard to tell with the undergrowth. But its legs seemed small for its height. At first she thought it was four-legged, but after a moment she realized it had a strange set of forelegs—or arms—she couldn't tell which. It looked furry, but it was hard to tell what color, with the way the sunlight filtering through the leaves dappled it. _Mostly brown, _Julia thought.

"Tru?" she said, and the creature turned to look at her. It had almost iridescent eyes set high on an oddly flattened head that sat on an elongated neck. It skittered backwards when it saw her, then took a couple of tentative steps forward. As she studied it, she saw its eyes blink, and the eyelids closed by sweeping in from the sides. _And if I needed a reminder that we're on an alien planet, you certainly do the trick._

"Here," Tru said, and Julia finally saw her. She'd wedged herself into a small cleft in a rock face about three meters to the left of the creature, at one edge of a wide clearing in the trees.

Julia began edging her way towards Tru, trying to be as non-threatening as possible. The creature made a strange bleating noise as she got close to Tru, and Julia froze. "Are you okay?" she whispered.

"I'm fine," Tru whispered. "But it won't let me out of here."

"Julia?" Bess called quietly. The creature made the odd noise again, and Julia finally realized its mouth—or what she thought was a mouth—was partway down the neck. _It just gets weirder and weirder,_ she thought, but reminded herself,_ Alien planet, remember? If this is as weird as it gets, we'll be in great shape._

Julia switched on her gear. "Stay quiet, Bess," she whispered. "Don't come any closer. Just talk to me over the gear, okay?"

"Julia?" Devon said. "What's going on?"

"I found Tru. But we've got company," Julia whispered.

"We're on our way," Devon said.

"Wait," Julia said quietly. "When you get here, keep your distance. I don't want it to panic and hurt…anybody before I can get us clear."

"Okay," Devon said, and she sounded reluctant. "Be careful, Julia. I mean it."

Julia left the gear on, figuring Devon would feel better if she knew what was going on. "Okay, Tru," she whispered. "Here's what we're going to do. Did you hear where Bess was?"

"Yes," Tru whispered. Julia kept her eyes on the creature, but out of the corner of her eye she could see Tru's eyes were wide with fear.

"Good. I'm going to try to get in front of you. Once I do, I want you to move very slowly out of there. Head for Bess, okay?"

"What about you?" Tru said.

"I'll be right behind you," Julia said, hoping fervently that was what would happen. She began edging her way in front of Tru. The creature skittered towards her a few feet, then stopped when she froze. Its eyes almost glowed when it stopped in a pool of sunlight. Julia started moving forward again very slowly, and managed to get between it and Tru before it moved again—two feet closer. It was now no more than two meters away. It was starting to look bigger all the time.

"Okay, Tru," she whispered. "Bess, when Tru gets to you, head for the meadow and get across the river. Don't wait for me."

Bess didn't answer, but Julia didn't have time to say it again. As Tru started to move, the creature moved sideways, looking like it was trying to keep her in the cleft. Julia moved with it, her heart pounding. "Keep going, Tru," she said under her breath. "Get behind that tree and then run like hell. Got it?"

"Got it," Tru said, and seconds later, Julia heard her break into a run.

The creature jumped about six feet to the side all at once, and Julia was afraid it was going to go for Tru. "Hey!" she shouted, and waved her arms at it. It swung its rear legs around, turning to face her again, and it bleated again.

"That's it, stay right here," she said conversationally. "Bess, how are we doing?"

"She's here," Bess said. "I'm sending her to the meadow. Where are you?"

"Go with her, Bess," Julia said quietly, starting to edge her way toward the tree Tru had gotten behind. "I'm on my way."

"You don't sound like you're on your way," Bess said, and she sounded annoyed.

"Just go—" Julia said, and that's when things got exciting. The creature jumped straight towards her, almost six feet in the air, and Julia dove back and to her right, trying to get behind the tree. The creature landed about two feet in front of where she'd been standing, and swung around to face her as she scrambled to her feet behind the tree.

"Woah!" Julia gasped. _Aren't you athletic?_ she thought. It bleated at her, then skittered sideways again, and Julia shifted to keep the tree between them.

"Julia?" Devon said over the gear. "Are you okay?"

"So far, so good," Julia said, and almost laughed. "It's almost like it's playing with me."

"Well, don't have too much fun," Devon said dryly. "I want my doctor in one piece, okay?"

"Okay," Julia said, and reached carefully down to grab a stick near her foot. She was about to throw it at the creature, hoping to scare it off, when it reared back on its backmost legs, bleating wildly.

And Julia heard a throaty growl from above and behind her.

* * *

It took Danziger and his group well into the night to load the Transrover and the trailer with the supplies from the pod. Amazingly, almost everything fit. They only had to carry a few cases by hand. They set out early the next morning, hoping to make it back to the pod before the sun went down and they lost power for the solar vehicles.

Danziger was relieved. He knew they'd been in a bad spot, with limited rations, and no real way to determine what might be safe to eat or drink in the area. But it looked to him like they had quite a bit of medical gear, and with the vehicles, they could scout a lot farther for the other supply pods.

He walked along behind the ATV, which was loaded to the gills with boxes. The folks from the other escape pod were all in good shape, though they'd had some adventures getting here. They had an encounter with some sort of weird creature with big teeth. Which made Danziger glad for the other big find from the pod—they now had six mag-pro rifles and four handguns with plenty of ammunition. He patted the one in his hands lovingly. _Now we have a chance here_, he thought. _If something big comes at us, now we can shoot back_.

"Danziger!" Bill called from the front of their convoy. "We've got company!"

* * *

Julia turned her head very carefully and looked up. There was a very different creature standing on top of the rock outcropping Tru had wedged herself in. It wasn't very big, but it had powerful looking front legs that were tipped with nasty looking claws. It was hexapedal like the little creature, but it was clearly a carnivore. It growled again, and Julia saw long, sharp teeth in a head topped with a bizarre spiky crest.

"What was that?" Bess said over the gear.

"Julia?" Devon said. "Julia!"

Julia could hear the sound of Devon running through brush over the gear, but she didn't answer, and she didn't take her eyes off the carnivore. For several seconds, she didn't even breathe. _At least it's not looking at __me_, she thought, getting ready to run. She heard the other creature bleat wildly, and then heard a crashing sound. All at once the carnivore had launched itself off the rocks into the clearing where the small creature had disappeared.

Julia didn't wait to see it go. She turned and ran full tilt through the forest, whispering at Bess over the gear between breaths, "Run! Bess, go!" She saw the meadow ahead of her and put on a burst of speed when she saw Bess running for the river with Tru just ahead of her. Bess turned to look back at her. "Don't…stop!" Julia shouted, waving her on.

She was halfway across the meadow when she caught one foot on something and went sprawling. "Julia!" Tru yelled.

Julia scrambled to her feet, half-expecting to feel sharp claws in her back at any moment, but she didn't allow herself to look back. She started forward again, and didn't let up speed even as she got to the river. She jumped all the way to the far rock, launched herself off that, landed skidding painfully on all fours on the far bank, and finally slid to a stop at Bess's feet. She looked back, but there was nothing coming across the meadow.

"What the hell happened?" Bess said, helping her to her feet.

"Julia?" Devon said over the gear. "Where are you?"

"Back on…our side…of the river," Julia panted. "With Tru and Bess. Get everybody on this side if…they aren't already. There's a nasty-looking animal over there."

"The thing that had me cornered?" Tru said, frowning. "I wouldn't exactly call it nasty-looking—more goofy."

Julia shook her head, leaning over with her hands on her knees, still trying to catch her breath. "No, the thing that has that for breakfast."

Tru's eyes went wide.

Devon came into view downstream, running full-tilt with Melanie at her heels. "Are you all right?" Devon said breathlessly, skidding to a stop.

Julia nodded, though she noticed that the left knee of her pants was torn, and there was a little blood showing on her knee in the hole.

"What happened?" Melanie said.

"We met some of the locals," Julia said. She described them both, with Tru adding details about the first creature.

"It looked like somebody dropped it on its head when it was a baby," she said, grinning excitedly now that the danger was past.

Devon gave Tru a fierce look. "Tru—"

"I know," Tru said quickly. "I messed up. I shouldn't have gone so far out. I'm really sorry, Julia," she said earnestly. "I was just so bored in camp. I didn't even think about animals being out there."

"There are a lot of things we haven't thought of," Julia said seriously. "Devon, we need to talk to everyone about this. None of us has any experience being outdoors. There are way too many dangers out here that we don't know how to handle."

"We got lucky today," Devon said, nodding. "Come on, I want to talk to you about that. Mel, could you and Bess take Tru back to camp and help her get cleaned up?"

Melanie shot Julia an "uh-oh" look, then followed Bess, who was dragging a very reluctant Tru back to camp.

"So," Devon said. "You want to talk to me about what happened out there?"

"Look, Tru really does feel—" Julia began, but Devon shook her head.

"That's not what I mean. What was that 'don't wait for me' thing all about?"

Julia was taken aback by the question. "I—well, I wanted to be sure Tru and Bess were safe," she said, suddenly realizing that she had become the one who was getting chewed out instead of Tru.

"And your own safety? What about that?" Devon said, clearly irritated with her.

"Well, at the time I said that, I didn't think I was in any grave danger," Julia said defensively. "Believe me, once I saw teeth, my safety was pretty high on my priority list."

"Damn it, Julia, it needs to be high all the time!" Devon snapped.

Julia looked shocked.

Devon ran her hand through her hair. "Look, it's not just that you're our only doctor, though obviously that's important." She held up her hand to stop Julia from jumping in. "No, let me finish. It's more than that. Julia, can you imagine how hard it would be for this group to lose anyone, anyone at all, so soon after O'Neill?"

Julia's face fell. Her lips tightened, and she gave a sharp nod after a moment. "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Sorry's not good enough, Doctor," Devon said relentlessly. "I need to know that every person in this group is going to take their own safety seriously." She paused, seeing a rebellious look in Julia's eyes, and decided to take a different tack. "I'm sorry, but…god, Julia, you scared the hell out of me!"

The rebellious look disappeared in an instant. "I really didn't mean to, Devon. It's just—it all happened so fast."

Devon nodded. "It's all right, I understand. I just want to be sure you understand that you don't have anything to prove to any of us, least of all me. No more taking stupid risks, okay?"

"No stupid risks," Julia said, and Devon smiled.

"Okay, let's see about getting that knee fixed," Devon said, putting her hand on Julia's shoulder, and they started back to the camp together.

_And now I know how to motivate you_, Devon thought, relieved. _Guilt works wonders_. _And it looks like the same thing works on Tru_, she added mentally, watching Tru run up to Julia as they got to the med tent. _I wonder if Danziger knows that_, she thought, and almost laughed at the idea of tough guy Danziger trying to play the guilt card.

_Danziger!_ she thought suddenly. _They need to know about these creatures._ "Danziger!" she said into the gear, switching to long-range. "Come in!"

"Hey, good timing, Adair! I was just about to call you," Danziger said.

"I need to tell you something," Devon said before he could start in. "We ran into some creatures here."

"Creatures?" he said, and there was a pause, and someone in the background said something. "Big teeth and claws?"

"Yeah, and six legs," Devon said. "One of them almost attacked…Julia." Devon kicked herself for almost saying "Tru." _That's the last thing he needs to hear._

"Jeez!" Danziger said. "Is she okay?"

"Yes, we're all fine, but I want you to be careful out there. Don't let anybody go away from your camp alone," she said.

"Well, that's going to be a lot easier now," he said, and she could hear the grin. "We're bringing back another pod-full. Ten more of our people showed up this morning."

"Ten more!" Devon gasped. "Thank god! That means there's only one more pod unaccounted—"

"Yeah," Danziger said, and this time she could tell the grin was gone. "That's the bad news. It looks like this is gonna be it, Adair."

"But—what about the other—?"

"One of the mechs in this pod saw another one get hit just as they launched," Danziger said. "He's pretty sure they vented atmosphere. So that's two that didn't make it, and both of them with full loads."

_Only 36 of 60,_ she thought sickly, trying hard not to think of who they must have lost, then reminded herself of O'Neill. _35. But at least we're all going to be together now._ "How soon do you think you'll be back?"

"Probably sometime after noon tomorrow," he said. "If the sun's out. We're having a little trouble keeping the batteries charged. We have to carry a couple of extra people on the ATVs—there were some injuries in the group that showed up this morning."

"I'll let Julia know," Devon said. "Thanks, Danziger. Adair, out." She headed for the med tent.

Julia was inside, sitting on a supply box with her foot propped up on another one. Tru and Bess were hovering over her as Melanie helped clean up her knee. Julia looked up at Devon and gave her a chagrined smile. "You definitely have my word I'll be more careful," she said. "This is my only pair of pants, after all." She pulled at the now-gaping hole in the knee.

"I'll bet that stings," Devon said, looking over Melanie's shoulder at the skinned knee.

"Oh, Melanie's making sure that it does," Julia said dryly. Melanie smiled sweetly at her and made a point of pouring some extra disinfectant on the gauze she was using. Julia winced as she swiped at the knee again.

"She should," Bess said, glaring at her. "Do you have any idea how scared I was, standing there wondering if you were getting eaten?"

"I'd've been pretty vocal about that," Julia said.

Bess swatted her arm. "This isn't funny, Julia!" Bess said, then looked surprised at what she'd done. "I'm sorry, but…I was really scared!"

"I know, I'm sorry," Julia said contritely.

"It's not her fault," Tru protested. "I was the one who got us into this."

_Score another two for guilt_, Devon thought. "Ease up on her, Bess," she said, taking pity on the doctor. "I already read her the riot act anyway. Besides, I have news."

"Danziger?" Melanie said, looking eagerly up at her. "Did he find more of our people?

"More like they found him," Devon said. "We have another ten coming in, with a couple of injuries."

"How serious?" Julia said, suddenly all business. She brushed Melanie away and took her foot off the stool.

"I don't know," Devon said, "but I don't think any are life-threatening. And they won't be back till tomorrow anyway."

"That just leaves one more pod!" Melanie said happily.

Devon shook her head. "One of the mechs told Danziger he saw one of the pods get hit. He's pretty sure they vented atmosphere. I think we can assume they didn't make it."

Julia went pale. "Only thirty-five of us," she said, echoing Devon's earlier thoughts.

"At least we have that many," Devon said. "And, best of all, now we can get started for New Pacifica."

Julia looked up, surprised, and then looked vastly relieved.

"I didn't realize you were so eager to get going," Devon said.

Julia blinked, then shook her head. "No, I—it's just that it'll be a lot easier to keep this one," she poked at Tru, "entertained if we're on the road."

"Hey!" Tru protested.

"Don't give her that innocent look," Bess said. "You were the one who said you were bored."

* * *

"Devon, may I have a moment?" Yale said, coming up to her from the pod as she left the med tent.

"Of course," she said. "Is Uly asleep?"

He nodded. "His O2 sats are looking much better today. I left Toshiko to watch over him."

"Good," Devon said, feeling bad that she had spent so little time with him since the crash.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Devon," Yale said. "He understands you have responsibilities beyond him."

"I wish he didn't have to understand that," she said ruefully. She looked curiously at Yale. "I meant to ask you, that verse you quoted at the funeral. What's it from?"

"A poet named Rabindranath Tagore, from the Old Earth nation of India, a province called Bengal. He was born in the late 19th century," Yale said.

"Bengal?" Devon said, raising her eyebrows. "You do have a gift for the obscure."

He shook his head. "This one was not so obscure as you might think. It has been used at many funerals. It simply seemed appropriate to me for this situation."

"Well," Devon said grimly, "here's hoping you don't have to come up with any more appropriate quotes for a funeral."

"Indeed," Yale said gravely.

"So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"I've had some time to review the data from the escape pod while I've been looking after Uly," he said.

"The data—you mean it's intact?" she said, surprised.

He nodded. "For the most part—there was some damage to the memory, but I was able to reconstruct most of the events leading up to the ejection of the pods."

"And?" Devon said, knowing it had to be something big.

"The crash was not an accident," he said. "The ship was struck by a man-made object. It changed course and accelerated immediately prior to impact. A meteor simply could not have done that."

Devon's eyes widened. "But how? Who could have…?"

"I suspect it was a drone launched from the stations after we escaped," Yale said. "It could have followed us here and been programmed to hit us as we approached entry."

Devon shook her head wonderingly. "Twenty-two years later, and they're still trying to kill us."

"There is something else," Yale said. "There was another object the scanners picked up right after the impact. I'm sure no one noticed in the chaos of the evacuation."

"Another object?" Devon said. "What sort of object?"

"It could have been another drone," Yale said. "The damage to the memory was quite severe at that point—I could get no details of shape or mass. It would not surprise me if the Council had sent a second drone, in case the first failed."

Devon nodded, but she still felt uneasy. _What if it was another ship?_ she thought. _There's not a damned thing you can do about it if it is,_ she finally told herself. _And chances are they wouldn't be able to do a thing to us, either. They'd have to find us, and our pod beacon isn't working. Once we get moving, we'll be safe. It's a very big planet, after all._

"Should we tell the others?" Yale asked, watching her think it through.

"No," she said after a long moment. "No, they have enough to worry about."

* * *

A while later, Julia saw Devon coming out of the pod. "How's Uly doing?" she asked, coming up.

"He's good," Devon said. "He's still pretty tired, but it looks like he's bouncing back."

Julia nodded, relieved. "We'll have to be careful once we get moving," she said. "Maybe I can get Danziger to rig up something like the scrubber system for whatever vehicle they found." She looked thoughtful, then looked at Devon again. "How soon do you think we will get moving?" she asked.

"Well, now that we think we have everyone accounted for, I'd like to get going soon," Devon said. "Is Solace able to travel?"

Julia nodded. "With the plasticast, he should be fine, especially now that we have a vehicle to transport him in. And the sooner we get going, the better."

"Why?" Devon said, curious.

"That creature I ran into—not the carnivore, the other one—I told you it had stubby legs, right?"

"Yes," Devon said, wondering what on earth that had to do with them moving soon.

"When that thing jumped," she said, raising her hand to demonstrate, "it went up higher than my head—"

"That's not exactly a record," Tru said from behind her, smiling mischievously. "You're not all that tall, y'know."

"Oh, look who's talking, short stuff," Melanie said, joining her.

Julia ignored them. "It shouldn't have been able to do that, given what I saw of its legs."

"So?" Melanie said, apparently as baffled by her line of thought as Devon felt.

"So," Julia said, turning to her, clearly fascinated by her topic, "I think it may have longer legs than I could see. If it could fold them up inside itself—it had an unusually fat body, more so than I would have expected given the size of its head and legs. So if it could do that, then it might have much longer, more powerful legs than I saw."

"That's really interesting," Devon said, not feeling particularly interested, though this was certainly the most animated she'd seen Julia.

"No," Julia said, "I mean, it is, but that's not why I brought it up. That's a pretty unusual adaptation. Why would a creature evolve with that kind of structure? What purpose could it serve?"

"High jumping?" Melanie said.

"Yes, but that could be achieved without tucking the legs inside the body," Julia said. "I think it has a completely different purpose. Do your feet ever get cold?" she asked the group.

"Julia—" Devon said, starting to get impatient.

"Think about it—when your feet get cold, what do you do to get them warm?" Julia continued. "You pull them up against the rest of your body, right?"

Devon's impatience evaporated. "You think this is an adaptation for warmth?"

Julia nodded. "And you see my point now," she said.

"It's going to get cold," Devon said.

Melanie frowned. "Wait, that's kind of a leap," she said then winced. "No pun intended."

Julia nodded. "I know, I'm not saying it's a certainty, but we know we're fairly far to the northern side of the continent, so we're in the higher latitudes. And based on its axial tilt, we know this planet experiences seasonal climate changes, more so even than old Earth. I also talked to Helen about the trees—they're very similar to Old Earth pines, with needles for leaves. She says that's an adaptation for cold climates."

"You've convinced me," Devon said, looking worried. "Do we have any idea where we are in the seasons?"

"Based on the length of the days, we're either in late spring or late summer," Julia said, looking concerned. "I can't be sure which, but if you take into account—"

"Just give me the bottom line," Devon said.

"I think we're headed for winter," Julia said. "I don't know how far along we are, but I'm fairly certain the days are getting shorter, not longer."

"Did you say winter?" Bess said, joining them.

"Of course," Melanie said. "That would fit with the rest of our luck, wouldn't it?"

"We knew we were going to be dealing with seasonal extremes," Devon said. "That's why we located New Pacifica where we did. But we also planned for that in our supplies."

"Which could be anywhere," Tru said, sounding dismayed.

"It's not so bad as that," Melanie said. "Alonzo launched the supply pods before any of the escape pods launched, and he still had at least some control of the ship at that point. We're both pretty sure the rest of the supply pods have to be at least close to New Pacifica, or between us and it. They had some basic attitude adjustment capabilities, though they'd have had a hard time being launched as low as they were," Melanie said. "No, I think we'll have a decent shot at finding them if we just head for New Pacifica."

This time Julia tried not to let her relief show. That hadn't been her intent in bringing up the approaching winter—she was genuinely concerned about that. But now she realized it was probably the best argument for moving that she could have come up with.

"Besides," Devon said, "there are already supplies in place at the New Pacifica site. We sent ahead an automated shipload three months ago—or three months before we left," she amended.

"If the Council didn't screw that up for us, too," Melanie said bitterly.

Julia winced.

"Let's not borrow trouble," Devon said, looking troubled. "I'd say we have more than enough as it is. Okay, Melanie, I need you and Alonzo to see if you can figure out our best line of travel to maximize our chances of finding the supply pods. You'll need to keep in mind what Julia just told us—chances are we'll end up having to hole up for the winter at some point."

"If we can find at least some of the supply pods," Julia said, "they were designed to double as temporary shelters. They're insulated, with sealable doors and ventilation. They even have self-contained generators."

"But they're not exactly mobile," Devon said. "They weren't designed for cross-country travel."

Julia nodded. "But Danziger might be able to find a way to either move them or pull their generators. Either way, they're useful for more than just what they contain. Even one of them might be enough to give us living quarters. They're what—6 by 15 meters?"

Devon nodded. "It'd be cozy with one, comfortable with two, and downright luxurious with three."

"And if we're lucky, we'll find four or five within transportable distance of a perfect winter location," Bess said. She got a wide-eyed look. "Will it snow? It snows in winter, right?" She practically glowed when Julia nodded. "I've always wondered what snow was really like—all those old stories about it sounded so beautiful!"

Devon smiled at her. "You know something, Bess? I like having you around."

Bess beamed.

* * *

Danziger and his group got back late that afternoon, and the haul from the supply pod was even better than Devon had hoped. _The twenty more people are wonderful_, she thought,_ but when you add in the three vehicles, six mag-pro rifles, a hefty supply of ammunition for the rifles and—_

"The synthlab!" Julia exclaimed, watching Danziger unload another case. "It was Fifteen! You found the synthlab!" She touched the box like it contained the most precious item in the universe, then turned and flung her arms around Danziger.

"Damn this stupid leg," Alonzo said under his breath, looking on from where Melanie had helped him to get out of the tent for a while. "I should have been on that trip. He doesn't even appreciate what he's getting there."

Melanie snorted. He was right—Danziger looked almost terrified. But Alonzo's reaction was even more interesting. _Has the flyboy really come down to earth?_ she thought, her eyes narrowing slightly as she looked at him.

"Melanie, come on!" Julia said, finally releasing Danziger. "Help me get this into the med tent."

"What is it?" Melanie asked, knowing everyone else was thinking the same thing.

Julia smiled radiantly, and Danziger caught a glimpse of what Sawyer must have seen in her. "It's the most important piece of medical equipment we had in the supply pods," she said. She ran her hand through her hair. "I've been worried about our supplies—the things we'll have to go through, and this," she touched the box reverently again, "will allow me to synthesize some of the most important medications we need. Including Uly's," she added, smiling at Devon.

Devon smiled back. _And we both just took a step back from the edge of the cliff_, she thought.

Helen and Bill were unloading another box, and Melanie turned to see what it was. "Oh, this is like Christmas!" she said. "One of the hydroponics units, too? Are there seeds? Do we have seeds?"

"Right here," Morgan said, patting one of the boxes still on board the Transrover. "Looks like…" He paused, reading from it. "Tomatoes, onions, wheat, rice and carrots. And broccoli," he added, making a face.

Julia sat down on the hydroponics box like she was suddenly unable to stand. "We're not going to die," she breathed so quietly Devon was almost certain she was the only one who heard, and she felt her heart skip a beat. _I knew it was bad, she thought, but…_

"C'mon, Doc. Let's get this stuff stowed away for the night," Danziger said.

"Thank you," she said, turning to him. She turned back to Bill, and then looked up at Morgan. "Thank you all."

"Uh, Doc," Danziger said, clearly uncomfortable with the attention, "you've got some patients to look after." He nodded over at two of the new people who were still sitting in the little yellow four-wheeled vehicle. _What did he call it?_ Julia thought. _The rail?_

Then she realized what he'd said. "I'm so sorry," she said, and ran over to them, shoving her diaglove on. "I should have taken care of you first."

"No problem, Doctor Heller," the dark-skinned woman in a mech uniform in the back seat said. "We were pretty sure we weren't going to get any medical help at all, so this is all a pleasant surprise. I'm Phoebe Callahan," she said, holding out her right hand as Julia ran the diaglove over her. Julia glanced over and took her hand.

"Call me Julia," she said absently, letting her hand go so she could tap some commands into the diaglove. "Melanie, could you grab the med kit? Make sure the pain block is in there." Melanie nodded and ran for the med tent. "This must hurt," she said to Phoebe, nodding at her left hand. "It's a nasty burn." It ran all the way up her forearm, a second-degree burn across most of it, but the area of her palm was third-degree.

"Not as much as it would have hurt if I hadn't gotten that leak sealed," she said wryly. "We almost lost pressure completely right as we were entering the atmosphere. That's when this big furry guy next to me here got hurt—"

The young man snorted. "Todd Kramer," he said. "She hates the beard for some reason."

"—something blasted right through the hull, hit his leg," Phoebe said without missing a beat. "Must've been a piece of the ship breaking up. Anyway, I managed to get the emergency sealant in place, but the outer hull was already heating up, so, yeah, I got a little burn."

Melanie scampered up with the med kit. "Give her the standard painblock dose," Julia said, "and then treat these burns with the neoderm, like I showed you." Melanie looked nervous, but nodded, and Julia went around to look at Todd.

There was a nasty wound in his right thigh, but it looked like a through-and-through, and the diaglove confirmed that there hadn't been any damage to major vessels or to the bone. "You got lucky," Julia said, smiling at him.

"Yeah," he said, looking grim. "I saw what happened to the other pod."

* * *

That night, once they had the new folk settled into some of the tents they'd found in the supply pod, they had a group meeting by the fire. "We have a lot to talk about," Devon said, standing up. "First, while the supplies our people brought in today are a godsend, they're still only a fraction of what we'll need if we're going to survive here. So we need to try to find as many of the other supply pods as possible. Second, it sounds from what Todd saw that the last of the pods we had hoped to find didn't make it." She paused a moment, breathing a little shakily. "Given that, I think we need to start heading for New Pacifica."

Some of the ship's crew looked a little uneasy.

"I know standard procedure is to stay with the escape pods," Devon said, acknowledging their concerns. "But I also know that there's nobody out there to come to our rescue. We're on our own." She nodded at Melanie and Alonzo. "We've been able to make some estimates about where some of the supply pods are likely to have come down, and they're pretty much in a line straight west from here. Melanie, do you want to tell them the plan?"

"Based on what Danziger and his group saw on their trip to the supply pod," she said, holding up a map of the larger continent, "Alonzo and I are pretty sure we're somewhere in this vicinity." She pointed at a spot north and a little east of a large body of water in the center of the continent. "New Pacifica, and the load of supplies that were sent there three months before we left, is here," she pointed at the western coast of the continent, at a spot on the southern end. "Most of the supply pods should have come down somewhere along this line from just north of the Donut Hole to this part of the mountains."

Devon looked sharply at her, barely noticing she was pointing at a spot two-thirds of the way to the northern end of the mountain range that started just south and east of New Pacifica, west and a little south of their location. "The Donut Hole?" she said incredulously.

Melanie looked embarrassed. "Sorry—that's what we started calling it. I was hungry, and I have a thing for pastry, and…well, doesn't it look like a donut?" she said, gesturing at the big round shape of the continent. "And see, the lake's kind of like the…" She trailed off as Devon rolled her eyes, and a ripple of laughter ran through the group.

"So we're gonna call this the Big Donut?" Helen said, grinning.

"Believe me, that's better than what Alonzo wanted to call it," Melanie said, looking even more embarrassed. Alonzo grinned shamelessly. This time the laughter took a while to die down.

"All right, everybody," Devon said, trying to stop smiling. "So the plan is, we head west along the line that they've laid out. We'll send the ATV and the rail out on search patterns as we go, scanning for the supply pod beacons and scouting the trail ahead. When we get to the mountains here," she pointed at the range running from the northeast to the southwest, "we'll have to figure out if we try to cross over them or if we turn to the southwest and try to cross at some point closer to New Pacifica. Hopefully by then we'll have more of our gear, and we'll have a better idea how close we are to winter, and whether we can survive it in the north with the supplies we have. Any questions?"

There didn't seem to be any at that point, but Devon knew they'd come up once people had time to digest the information. But for the time being, she decided to move on. "Okay, that brings me to the next point. Julia and I were talking about a little incident we had earlier today." She looked pointedly at Tru, who looked almost as embarrassed as Melanie had. "It made a few things clear to us. Most of us don't have clue one about how to survive on a planet like this. We've all grown up on the stations, without any experience dealing with wild animals, weather, and any number of things we haven't even thought of yet. There are too few of us to have any margin for error here. We need everyone to be as careful as possible. So we're going to set up some ground rules. Julia, do you want to start?"

"Okay, first, nobody leaves the camp without somebody going with them. You'll tell someone where you're going, and you'll have your gear with you and turned on the whole time you're out. Second, nobody touches anything unless Melanie or I have had a chance to scan it…"

* * *

"Uh, Dr. Heller?" Morgan Martin said from just outside the med tent.

Julia pulled open the tent flap. "Yes? Did you need something?"

"Well, I was, it's just, I have this…" He looked embarrassed and nervous.

"I won't bite, Mr. Martin," Julia said gently. "Actually, I'm glad to see you. I wanted to apologize for saying all the things I did to you before. I was completely out of line, and I'm very sorry."

He looked stunned. "I-it's fine," he said finally. "We're fine. No apology needed. I mean, I'm sorry, too. I messed up. Again." He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there. "So…uh…okay…" He trailed off and started to walk away.

"Mr. Martin?" Julia called after him. "Did you need to see me for something?"

"Oh, yes," he said, turning around, but he looked like he wished she'd just let him walk away. "I mean, no…it's hardly…it's not…"

"If there's something bothering you, you need to get it looked at," Julia said. "Come on in."

"Oh," Martin said, "uh, okay." He stepped into the tent, but he still looked nervous.

"So what's the matter?" Julia said.

"I have this…rash," he said.

"A rash," Julia said, putting on her doctor's deadpan face. "Where exactly?"

"Well, it…uh…it's in…a…delicate place," he said, blushing furiously.

"I'm afraid you'll have to be a little more specific," Julia said, and when he hesitated, she added, "Mr. Martin, I'm a doctor. Just spit it out."

"It's…my…manly parts," he said, and Julia bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing.

"I see," she said. "Let's have a look."

"Can't I just describe it?" he said desperately. "I mean, it's red…well, reddish-orange, maybe with a little pink in it…kind of sunset colored—"

"Mr. Martin, just show me," Julia said. It took several minutes to convince him, and another several to complete her examination, which revealed very little. _Very little indeed_, Julia thought, biting her cheek again. She made a note to herself to take Morgan Martin's self-diagnoses with a large grain of salt in the future.

"Take one of these tonight, and another tomorrow morning," she said, handing him two of her mildest anti-inflammatories.

"And then what?" Morgan said, zipping up his pants so fast Julia worried she'd be treating something real in a moment.

"Keep it as clean as you can. Everybody's having similar kinds of problems. It's going to be an ongoing issue with the limited clothing options we have."

"But what if it doesn't go away?" he said.

"Come back for more pills," she said, starting to get impatient. She'd run into Martin's type often enough in her young career, the patient who was convinced that whatever issue he had—and probably a dozen he didn't—was a sign of some obscure but deadly disease.

"But—" Morgan began, but was interrupted by someone opening the tent flap.

"Hey, Doc, you—?" Danziger said, coming into the med tent, and stopping cold when he saw Martin. "Oh, sorry," he said. "We need to come up with a substitute for ringing the door chime."

_He's right_, Julia thought. _Thank god he didn't come in five minutes ago_.

"It's okay," Martin said quickly, blushing again. "I was just leaving." He brushed past Danziger, who didn't bother to get out of the way.

"So, Doc, you got a minute?" he said after Martin had left.

"Danziger, you found me a synthlab. You can have me all day if you want," Julia said, then frowned, blushing slightly. "Wait—that didn't come out quite the way I meant it."

"I know what you meant," Danziger said, grinning. "Look, I was talking to Bess a minute ago—"

"Hold on," Julia said, "before you say anything else, whatever she said about yesterday was probably pretty exaggerated."

"Well, considering what Tru just spent the last hour telling me, I don't think Bess came close to describing it," Danziger said dryly. "Between them and what Devon heard over the gear, I think I have a pretty good idea of what went down out there. I owe you one, Doc."

"We are more than even," Julia said emphatically, patting the synthlab.

"That's not all I wanted to say," Danziger said, looking uncomfortable. "Tru pretty much thinks you walk on water right now—and she's thought something close to that ever since she met you. I don't know what you did on the ship, but it made a big impression on her. I think that's good. She needs somebody to look up to—"

"Woah," Julia said, shaking her head and putting up her hand to stop him. "I'm no role model. You two hardly know me, and believe me, I'm not—"

"Do you see a lot of other options around here?" Danziger said.

"What about Devon? Or Helen?" Julia said, thinking desperately.

"Look, Doc, I'm not trying to put you in a bad spot. It's just—well, you said she was a handful, and you don't know the half of it."

Julia was really starting to look worried.

"Easy there, Doc, don't panic on me," Danziger said. "All I'm saying is that I'm okay with it if she hates me for bringing her along on this trip. But she needs somebody here she likes, and right now, that looks like you. If you wouldn't mind her hanging around with you now and then, I'd really appreciate it. If it keeps her out of trouble for even ten minutes, it'll be worth it for everybody."

Julia still looked pretty uncomfortable, but she finally nodded. "Okay. But don't blame me if she turns out to be something awful. I have no experience with children—at all."

"Don't treat her like a kid," Danziger said. "Heck, I think that's why she likes you—you talk to her like she's an adult." He grinned at her and ducked out of the tent.

Julia sighed. _Of course the local juvenile delinquent would pick me for a role model. I'm the only person here besides her who seems to have criminal tendencies,_ she thought bitterly. She ducked under the back of her tent and slipped off into the underbrush behind it, hoping she didn't run into any of the big teeth creatures. _This is idiotic,_ she thought, knowing she was violating one of the first rules they'd set up. _There has to be a better way of contacting them._ She sighed as she came to a small clearing far enough away from the camp she figured no one could hear her if she spoke quietly. She leaned her back against a tree, flipped the VR eyepiece into place and plugged in her chip.

"Dr. Heller," Brendan said. "Good of you to join me at last."

"Look, it isn't easy for me to get away, and it isn't exactly safe, either. We ran into some dangerous creatures today, so I'm not all that wild about tramping around alone in the dark," she said, keeping her voice low.

"Then let's keep this brief," Brendan said. "Where are you?"

Julia took a deep breath. _And the die is cast_, she thought. _Let's hope this ends better than things did for Julius Caesar._


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: Well, yay! Two more reviews (and a really wonderful reiki session—I highly recommend it) gave me the oomph to get this part ready. Thanks to you anonymous folks! I really appreciate the kind words. I hope I keep your interest as this moves along! And by the way, if any of you are interested, the inspiration for Melanie came partly from Pam, the nearly lineless comm deck tech in part 1 of the pilot, but also in part from Sabrina Lloyd's character on Sports Night. If you're not familiar, I highly recommend that, too. It's on Netflix, and you'll love it. And Natalie. :-)_

* * *

Earth Two

Chapter 4:

"Okay, everybody. We're Eden Advance. So let's advance!" Devon said with a grin.

It was the sixth day since they'd left the emergency pod. They'd been heading mostly south to get out of the foothills, but the foothills had spread out into a wide plain the day before, and since then they'd been angling more west.

Julia was spending a lot of time in the Transrover. Danziger had set up a fairly effective scrubber system cobbled together from the pod to help keep the air in the cab cleaner for Uly, but he was still having trouble off and on, and it seemed to be a little worse once they got into the plains, where it was drier. And dustier. Julia felt guilty at riding so much when everyone else was having to walk, but there wasn't much she could do about it. _Hopefully_, she thought, _Uly will improve soon, and then I can make up for it._

"This is annoying," Uly said.

"What is?" Julia said, scanning him again with the diaglove.

"This," he said waving his arms, then wheezing slightly. "There's this whole big world out there, and I'm stuck in here."

"Well, if it's any consolation, there are a bunch of people out there who'd love to trade places with you for a while," Julia said. "I'm treating a lot of blisters."

"I'm with Uly," Todd said from the driver's seat. He'd been driving the whole way because of his injured leg. It was healing well, but he still couldn't walk easily. "I never thought I'd like the open spaces, but now that they're out there and I'm in here…" He shook his head. "It is annoying."

"You'll be up and around in a few days," Julia reassured him.

"What about me?" Uly said, looking glum.

Julia sighed. "Honestly, Uly, I don't know."

"It's stupid keeping me shut up in here," he said. "The whole point of coming here was to get me outside!"

_He has a point_, Julia thought. But every time she'd gotten him outside for any length of time, his lung function dropped like a stone. "We'll keep trying to get you outside, Uly. I promise. I just think we need to do it in small doses, to let your body adjust."

"Yeah, yeah," Uly said derisively.

"You're doing a little better," Julia said. "Your O2 sats are back up to 95."

He barely glanced at her.

"Listen, I need to go check on some things right now. Do you want me to get Yale back up here?"

He looked dismayed. "He'll want to do history again," he said. "I hate history."

"History's not so bad," Todd said. "He's just not telling you the cool stuff."

"What cool stuff?" Uly said.

"Like how they made mummies in Ancient Egypt," Todd said. "Did you know they had to take the brains out of the body? They stuck this pointy thing up the nose of the dead body and pulled the brain out bit by bit."

"That's one theory," Julia said, smiling at Todd. "The other one's even better."

"What?" Uly said, actually sounding interested.

"They used the pointy thing like a whisk and whipped the brains inside the skull till they were liquefied and then drained them out the nose," she said.

Uly looked skeptical for a minute, then grinned. "Okay, so that's cool. But that's like one thing, and there's all those stupid kings and constitutions and stuff."

"Okay," Todd said. "How about Pompeii?"

Julia left them discussing the way volcanic ash preserved the shape of dead bodies, and climbed out of the cab. She jumped to the ground and headed back to the back of the rover to check on their water supplies. They'd filled their tanks from the river before they left, but she was starting to get a little concerned. The pure water from the pods' emergency supplies was already gone. Rob had put together a remarkably elegant distillery using scavenged equipment from the escape pod and the supply pod, so she was comfortable with the safety of the water they'd carried from the river, but even those supplies were dropping fast.

She came back around the rover and saw Danziger driving up in the rail. She trotted to catch up to where he was talking to Devon.

"It's just a whole lot of the same," Danziger said. "I went about 10 klicks out, and nothing new."

"No water?" Julia said.

He shook his head.

Devon glanced at Julia, frowning. "Is it that bad?" she said.

Julia shrugged. "We're going through a little over 80 liters a day right now, and that's just in drinking water. Our storage holds about 1000 liters. At the rate we're going, that's going to last us another…seven days, unless we start rationing." She glanced up at the sky. "And if the weather continues the way it has, we're going to go through it faster—it's hotter down here on the plains than it was in the foothills. Winter may be coming, but not fast enough."

Devon looked at Danziger, who nodded. "Let's cut the ration down to two liters a day for now," she said. "If we don't find another water supply in two days, we'll cut it more. And no using water for anything other than drinking."

"I'll spread the word," Julia said. "And I'll talk to Rob about trying to come up with some way to recycle."

Devon grimaced, but nodded. "And in the meantime, we need to keep moving," she said. "Let's see if we can cover those ten klicks by the end of the day."

"I'll head out for a longer scout tomorrow, see if I can find any water at all," Danziger said.

* * *

They set out early the next day, trying to cover as much ground as possible. Danziger left as soon as the rail had a full charge. "Stay in touch on the gear," Devon said. "I want to know where you are if something goes wrong."

"You worry too much, Adair," Danziger said.

Devon frowned. "Only because you give me too much reason to," she said. He grinned at that, then gunned the rail and sped off. Devon sighed, shaking her head as she watched him go. It was clear he was having the time of his life going off scouting. For somebody who'd spent his life on the stations, he took to the wilderness like he was born to it.

_Actually, most of us are._ There were a few exceptions—she glanced over at Morgan Martin, shaking her head—but almost everyone seemed to find the new environment exciting. _Here's hoping that lasts_, Devon thought. _It's going to be hard enough doing this with everyone working together._

They kept up a good pace through most of the morning, and Devon was pleased at the progress. But by early afternoon, she still hadn't heard back from Danziger, and she was starting to get worried. _If he's gotten into trouble_, she thought, _I'm going to kill him_. She started to reach for her gear to call him, but forced herself to stop, knowing he'd give her a hard time. _I'll give him another fifteen minutes_, she thought.

* * *

Julia tripped for the third time in less than an hour, barely keeping herself from sprawling flat, and nearly dropping her tablet in the process. "Hey, Heller, maybe you ought to keep your eyes on the road," Alonzo said, pulling up next to her in the ATV.

Julia smiled wryly. "I know," she said.

"If whatever you're working on is so important," Alonzo said, "why don't you see if you can hitch a ride on the Transrover?"

She shook her head. "I've been riding more than just about anybody because of Uly," she said. "Other people need the break. I'll be more careful."

"Or," he said, "you could wait to work on that till we get to camp tonight." Then he frowned and looked at her carefully. "Unless you're planning to stay up all night. When did you get to sleep—?"

"Solace," Julia interrupted, "I'm fine. I got plenty of sleep last night, and I'll do the same tonight. I'm just onto something right now, and I need to see if I can figure it out." She turned back to her tablet, hoping he'd take the hint.

"What is so important?" he asked.

Julia tried not to roll her eyes. "I'm working on something to try to help your leg heal faster," she said.

He frowned. "Talk to me," he said.

Julia almost told him to go away, but he really seemed interested. _And it is his leg. Maybe talking through it will spark something,_ she thought. "Okay. It has to do with the synthlab. It's actually a two-part system—the part we have is the actual manufacturing mechanism. The other part is a dedicated database of chemical and biochemical formulas, and the processes for synthesizing them. We're missing that part—we had two of each part and packed each of them in separate pods to avoid losing both parts if we lost a pod." She looked chagrined. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Famous last words," he grinned. "So what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to reconstruct the process for synthesizing a medication that can stimulate bone healing," she said. "Once I have it, I can input it manually, and the synthlab will produce it."

"But how are you going to reconstruct it?" he said. "Do you have it in your tablet?

She shook her head. "I know the chemical formula of the end result. What I'm trying to do is figure out the steps I have to take to put it together. It's sort of like a logic problem."

"Or astrogation," he said, nodding. "How to get from point A to point B without running into a black hole."

"Kind of," she said absently, looking back at the tablet.

"Heller," Alonzo said, and she looked up at him. "You might want to just focus on getting from point A to point B right now." He pointed, and she realized she'd been about to walk right into a rock.

She stopped, shaking her head, smiling. "Thanks, Solace," she said. "Maybe I'll put this away for a while."

"Yeah," he said, grinning back at her. "Good idea. I appreciate the effort, but you really don't need to knock yourself out literally for me, okay? I already know you care." He sped off before she could come up with a retort.

"You two are adorable," Melanie said, coming up behind her.

Julia tucked her tablet into her pack and walked around the rock, pointedly ignoring Melanie.

"Oh, come on, Julia, you have to admit he's pretty cute," Melanie said, trotting to catch up.

"I don't have to admit anything," Julia said. "He's not my type."

"So what is your type?" Melanie asked. "If you don't go for tall, dark and handsome, what do you go for?"

_Tall, dark and elsewhere_, Julia thought.

"Julia," Melanie said wheedlingly. "Please, I'm dying of boredom. Conversation is my only hope."

Julia sighed. _With anybody else, I'd clam up, and they'd leave me alone,_ she thought. _But not Melanie. And of all the subjects for her to pick..._ "I don't really have a type," she said, hoping Alonzo would stay up at the front so he wouldn't hear this conversation.

"Oh, come on, with those crazy blue eyes of yours, you must have to beat them off with a stick," Melanie said, rolling her eyes. "Don't tell me there aren't some you go for more than others."

"Mel, my…experience with men…" Julia trailed off. _Hell, my experience with human beings in general,_ she thought.

"What?" Melanie said gently, realizing she was serious.

"I've gotten burned," she said finally. "More than once."

"Oh," Melanie said. "How?"

_Stop asking me questions!_ Julia thought despairingly. "Let's just say the kind of people interested in a relationship with the daughter of a Council member aren't the kind of people I'd recommend," Julia said, hoping Melanie would drop it.

"Oh," Melanie said again, wishing she could say something more helpful. She'd forgotten about the rumors about Julia's mother. _No wonder she's so guarded all the time_, she thought. _She's probably used to people wanting stuff from her. Or worse._

"What about you?" Julia asked, trying to divert the subject to something lighter. "What do you go for?"

Melanie looked embarrassed. "I kind of have a thing for brainiacs, which is tough, because I don't get to meet all that many in my line of work. They're either flyboys like Solace or bruisers like Danziger. But there's something about a pair of glasses…"

Julia glanced back at some of the group walking behind the Transrover. "I'd say you have some options here," she said.

"Yeah," Melanie said, grinning as she looked back at Rob Anderson, but she refused to be diverted. "And so do you. Look, I know 'Zo is a little hard to take at times, but—"

"Melanie," Julia interrupted. "I'm not interested. I have too much to do, too many responsibilities—"

"But I'm not hearing that you don't like him," Melanie said.

"—and I don't like him," Julia said, trying not to smile.

_Yeah, right_, Melanie thought, looking hard at her. _This is gonna be fun._

"Don't give me that look," Julia said. "If you're so bored, how about I quiz you on the meds again?" Melanie looked exactly like Tru had when Yale insisted she study math with Uly. "For treatment of nausea?" Julia said inexorably.

Melanie sighed. "Queasy-goo," she said.

"Melanie," Julia said warningly.

"C'mon, Jules, I know what it looks like, I just can't pronounce the damned word. I'll remember queasy-goo."

"Fine," Julia relented. "What's the dosage for Uly?"

"Hey, everybody! Come take a look at this!" Hardy called from the front. Melanie glanced sideways at Julia, then took off at a run. Julia shook her head, grinning, and trotted after her.

They came up over a small rise, and there before them at the bottom of a long slope was an enormous canyon. Julia remembered seeing VRs of the old Earth Grand Canyon, and this easily rivaled it.

"Wow," Melanie breathed. "That's a big honkin' canyon. It didn't look like there was a big canyon on the sat image."

_And it's right across the route we need to take_, Julia thought, realizing the implications of the obstacle. _So if we can't cross it, we'll have to go around._ She found herself glancing uneasily to the south.

"Damn it, Danziger, where the hell are you?" Devon said into the gear.

"Keep your pants on, Adair, I'm here," Danziger said.

"Where?"

"I headed south along the canyon edge, trying to see if there's a way down," he said.

"And you didn't think it was worth mentioning to me that there was an enormous canyon?" Devon said.

"Hey, it's kind of hard to miss," Danziger said. "I knew you'd run into it. I figured it was more important to find a way down."

"Why?" Devon said. "We're not going to be able to get the Transrover down it. We'll have to go around."

"Yeah," Danziger said patiently. "I know that—but there's water at the bottom of the canyon."

"Oh," Devon said. "All right, then. We'll stop here, set up camp, and see if we can find a way down."

"That's my plan," Danziger said.

_Infuriating man_, Devon thought, heading over to where a bunch of their people had gathered to look out across the canyon. "Pass the word," she said as she went, "we're camping here for the time being." She found Melanie standing near the edge, peering over.

"Hey, Melanie, don't get too close to the edge," she said. "It's a long way down."

"No kidding," Melanie said, shaking her head. "This has to be—what—at least a kilometer down, right?"

"It's hard to tell-it's pretty dark down there. But it's probably a half a kilometer wide," Devon said, looking across to the far side. "It gets a lot narrower at the bottom, though."

"I wonder how wide it gets farther south," Julia said, looking off that direction. She looked worried.

Devon considered that. "You think we'd be better off trying to go back north?"

Julia looked at her, shaking her head. "I don't know, Devon. But I think it's possible this could go all the way to the…the Donut Hole," she said, giving in to the inevitability of that name sticking. "If it does, that would take us a long way out of our way from the line we think the supply pods are on."

Melanie nodded. "And we know we're not that far from the foothills, maybe 60 kilometers. I doubt if this thing goes all the way through the mountains," she said.

"I sure hope not," Devon said.

Danziger got back from scouting southward a little later. "I found a spot that looks like it might be a way down," he said. "Looks like an animal path. But I don't think it's a good idea to try to start now. Better to wait till morning."

Devon nodded, though she chafed at the delay. _It's like this planet seems bound and determined to keep me from getting to New Pacifica._

* * *

Melanie woke up and blinked sleepily. _Why is the light still on?_ she thought, and sat up.

Julia was still sitting at her lab table, but she'd laid her head on her folded arms. "Oh, honestly," Melanie said out loud. She got up and went over. "Julia," she said, shaking her shoulder.

Julia shot up straight. "What? What is it?"

"This is your conscience speaking," Melanie said. "You told your tentmate you'd be going to sleep in ten minutes, and that was…" Melanie paused, looking over Julia's shoulder at her tablet. "…over two hours ago. You're one of those annoying people who always got top grades and still studied more than everybody else put together, aren't you?"

"Sorry," Julia said, rubbing her neck. "I was getting close on the seventh step."

"This is crazy," Melanie said. "Is it really that important?"

"It could cut two full weeks off of Solace's recovery time," Julia said seriously. "The only reason this treatment isn't standard now is that Shinzuko developed the boneheal vaccine. Before that, Johannsen was getting very promising results with this in early trials. Up to thirty percent increases in—"

"Okay, okay," Melanie said. "I get it. It's important. But you're trying to do too much again, Jules. There'll be plenty of time to work on it tomorrow, anyway."

Julia sighed, then nodded. "Okay, just let me—"

"If your next words aren't 'save my work so far,'" Melanie said, "you'd better be prepared to get slapped upside the head."

"—save my work so far," Julia said meekly.

* * *

"So, who's gonna go down there?" Melanie said, looking nervously over the edge the next morning. "I'm okay with heights, but falling kind of freaks me out."

"I'm willing," Helen said.

"So am I," Danziger said.

"Sorry, Danziger, but you'll have to sit this one out. Rob has an idea for rigging a way to extract moisture from the air," Devon said. "But he needs some help."

"But if we get water from down there—" Bill began.

"There's no guarantee it'll last us through the next dry patch," Devon said. "Not to mention that we don't know if we'll be able to get down there at all, let alone bring water back up. We need a plan B."

Bess nudged Morgan hard with her elbow. "What?" he said.

"You should volunteer," she said under her breath.

"Me?" Morgan breathed. "Are you nuts?"

"No," Bess said reasonably. "I just think it would be a good first step in getting back in everyone's good graces."

"Or a good first step towards getting dead!" he said.

"Morgan says he'll do it," Bess called out.

Everyone turned to look at them both. Morgan swallowed hard. "Uh…" he said, and Bess elbowed him hard again. "Yes, I'd be…happy to help."

Devon looked over at Helen, who shrugged. "Okay, Martin," Devon said dubiously, "you're with Helen. Be careful, both of you."

"Come on, Martin," Helen said, resigned. _I'm going to be stuck with this guy forever. It's like my own tiny version of hell._ "Let's get geared up."

"If I die, Bess, I'm coming back to haunt you," Morgan muttered.

* * *

"How's it going?" Melanie said to Julia, coming into the med tent.

Julia held up her hand, staring hard at the tablet. "Hold on…" she said absently. "If I…" she tapped something on the tablet. She paused, thinking, then nodded. She tapped several more times on the tablet, then leaned back, studying it.

"Julia?" Melanie said after several minutes of silence.

"I think I have it," she said. She turned to look at the synthlab. She pressed a button on it and began tapping commands into a small keyboard that popped out.

"You mean the whole thing?" Melanie said. "Already?"

Julia nodded, referring back to the tablet as she typed. Melanie watched, growing increasingly impressed as the typing continued.

"Just out of curiosity, how do they come up with these processes back on the stations?" Melanie asked.

Julia glanced over at her. "They have a program that calculates all the possible permutations," she said, "and then virtually tests them."

"And how many people work on this?"

Julia shrugged. "I don't know. A few." She continued typing, then tapped another button, and the keyboard retracted. The box started to hum faintly, and Julia looked nervously at the far end of it. Finally, a slot opened, and she pulled out a tray with several small pills. She grabbed one, and scanned it with the diaglove, then turned to Melanie and grinned. "Osteomycin! I got it! C'mon," she said, and ran for the tent flap. _She looks like a kid on Christmas morning,_ Melanie thought.

"Solace!" Julia called, running toward the Transrover.

He rolled into view in the ATV, and looked surprised. "What's going on?"

"Here, take this," Julia said, handing him one of the pills.

Solace looked at the pill, then dry-swallowed it.

"You should have some water with that," Julia said, and ran for the back of the Transrover. She came back with a cup of water.

"So what did I just take?" he said, downing the water.

"Two weeks off your recovery time, I hope," Julia said.

"You did it?" he said. "Already?"

She smiled and nodded.

"How soon will we know if it's working?" he said.

Julia shook her head. "It depends—most of the trials showed some results within two to three days, but given our circumstances…" She shrugged. "I'd bet we'll know within four or five for sure."

"You're amazing!" he said. "So I could be walking again in two weeks?"

"Hold on, I didn't say that," Julia said. "We'll have to start you on physical therapy, probably within the next couple of days, and that's going to be rough. But if this works the way it's supposed to, and you work hard at the PT, maybe we can have your leg bearing weight in two weeks. You'll still have to go easy for another month at least."

He looked crestfallen. "Hey, don't look a gift horse," Melanie said. "Without this stuff, it'd be at least two months, right, Jules?"

"Easily," she said. "But the best part is, the bones should knit even stronger than they were originally. This stuff is the next best thing to boneheal."

Alonzo was impressed, particularly by the effect this success was having on Julia. She'd smiled more in the last five minutes than she had since he'd met her. "Listen, Heller, thanks. I know you worked really hard on this."

She looked embarrassed. "I—it's why I'm here," she said.

* * *

"Listen, don't take any chances," Devon said to Helen as they were about to start down the rough path they'd found. It looked like it was used by some sort of animals, and Devon hoped that they were worse climbers than humans. "If it looks at all like you could get into trouble—"

"You can count on me," Morgan said. "We'll be back here at light speed."

Helen rolled her eyes behind him. "We'll be fine, Devon. I'm betting we're down to the bottom within a couple of hours, tops." She set off down the slope, with Morgan trailing tentatively after her.

"Be careful, Morgan!" Bess called.

Helen picked her way down the steep slope. It was clear that whatever animals had worn this path were fairly sure-footed, but there was enough space on the path that she didn't feel too nervous. The path appeared to switch back and forth as it went down, so her estimate of how long it would take them was probably optimistic.

"Do we have to move this fast?" Morgan said behind her. "It seems a little reckless to me."

Helen ignored him, half-hoping he'd slip and fall, and then feeling guilty for it. She'd grown to really like Bess Martin in the few days she'd known her, and for some unknown reason Bess loved this overgrown weasel behind her. _Maybe there's more there than meets the eye,_ she thought, but she didn't think she'd ever have the patience to look for it.

They'd been hiking downward for a couple of hours when the wind started to pick up. Helen hadn't expected it to be that windy down in the canyon, but she supposed that the canyon could act like a wind tunnel if the conditions were right. She hoped it wouldn't get much worse—she didn't like the idea of trying to climb this path in a high wind.

"How close do you think we are?" Morgan said for the fifth time in the last hour.

"About ten minutes closer than we were the last time you asked," Helen said.

"There's no need for you to use that tone with me," Morgan said, sounding irritated. "I was just asking."

"Look, Martin, I didn't ask for you to come along, and I'd have been more than happy to do this by myself," Helen said. "So why don't you do me a favor and keep your mouth shut?"

"Why is everyone so unpleasant to me?" Morgan said.

Helen decided to take that as a rhetorical question, and kept going without saying a word.

* * *

"Valerie?" Julia said, coming over to where Valerie had set up a camp stool and was studying something on her tablet. "Do you have a moment?"

Valerie looked up and frowned. "What do you need, Heller?" she said warily.

"I was hoping you could help me with reconstructing our medical records," Julia said, wondering what she'd done to deserve the waves of hostility radiating from the tech.

"I don't know a thing about medicine," Valerie said as if that ended the conversation.

"That's not what I need," Julia said, trying to sound friendly. "I wasn't able to grab my tablet during the evacuation of the ship, and it had all the medical records on it. But we can recreate them if I have some way to organize and store them. I was wondering if you'd be willing to help us set up a database on one of the spare tablets so Melanie and I can start doing interviews and enter the data as we go."

"Piece of cake," Valerie said. "Have Melanie get together with me, and I'll get it done."

Julia started to say that she could explain what she needed, but it was more than apparent that Valerie didn't want to talk to her. "Okay," she said, at a loss. "Um…thanks."

Valerie waved her hand dismissively and turned back to her tablet.

"Don't mind her," Toshiko said under her breath, joining Julia as she walked away. "She's like that with everybody."

Julia looked sidelong at Toshiko as Phoebe snorted. _Valerie might be snotty to everybody, Julia thought, but she's not like __that__ with everybody._

"She's right," Phoebe said after Toshiko shot her a meaningful look. "That girl just got hit a couple extra times with the bitchy stick when she was born."

"Phoebe, don't be mean," Toshiko said quickly. "Listen, Julia, I might be able to help a little with the medical records. I did all the background checks for the Eden Project crew. There might be some things in my records that would be useful to you, and I was able to grab my tablet."

"Thanks," Julia said absently, still wondering what she'd done to antagonize Valerie.

"You might also talk to Yale," Toshiko said. "He has a pretty extensive database on his system. He helped Devon select the ship and crew, so he may have some records relating to the ship's personnel. And the best thing with that is, you can just download it directly from him."

"Really?" Julia said, surprised. She'd only thought of Yale as Uly's tutor, but it sounded like he was quite a bit more than that.

"He's kind of like Devon's walking tablet," Toshiko said, grinning. "She was always misplacing hers anyway, so she got in the habit of using him instead. At least if she lost him, he could find his way back."

* * *

"How far are they?" Bess said.

"About two-thirds of the way down," Devon said, sitting on a rock at the top of the canyon. "Helen thinks they should make it to the bottom in the next hour or so." She squinted as a gust of wind blew dust across them. Off to the north, some clouds were building up on the horizon. _I wonder what a storm will be like here_, she thought, suddenly worried. _We've had such good weather so far, I hadn't even considered the possibility before._

Then she had a worse thought. _What if it rains? We have no idea whether it's safe!_ She almost called Helen right then and told her to turn back, but then thought they might be safer at the bottom than clinging to a canyon wall. _I'll keep an eye on it_, she thought uneasily.

Melanie frowned, looking down at her tablet. "That's weird," she said.

"What?" Devon asked, glancing over at her.

"I'm getting some strange electrical signals on the comm," she said. "It's like interference, but not from any source I'm familiar with." She continued to frown, tapping at the tablet. "It's coming from off to the north, but…"

"What?" Devon said, wondering suddenly if this could be related to the other object Yale had said the sensors had picked up before their ship went down.

"It's not from any single source—it's like it's bouncing from one spot to another randomly," she said. She looked up at the sky to the north. "This planet creates the weirdest signals."

* * *

"This is really odd," Helen said, looking at the rocky wall of the canyon.

"What?" Morgan said.

"This almost looks…" She frowned. "Look at this—what do you see?" She pointed at a spot where the rock face looked like it had been sheared off.

"I see a big rock," Morgan said.

Helen sighed. "I know, but look at the shape of it—this doesn't look natural. I mean, a rock would break along a flaw—like metal fatigue. But you wouldn't expect it to have a flaw at almost a perfect ninety degree angle."

"So?" Morgan said.

Helen shook her head. "I don't know—the scans all said that there was no intelligent life on G-889, but…what if they're wrong?"

Morgan's eyes got wide. "You mean—?" He broke off, looking wildly around. "Did you bring guns?" he said.

"Yes," Helen said, and thought to herself, _And I'm not about to give you one. You're liable to shoot me by accident._ "Devon," she said into the gear. "Could you put Bill on? I want him to take a look at something."

"Sure," Devon said, and Bill came on a moment later.

"What's up, Helen?" he said.

"Go to visual," Helen said, and flipped her eyepiece around to train the camera on the rock face. "What does this look like to you, Bill?"

Bill didn't say anything for a long time. "Could you pan to the left?" he said finally. "And get closer." Helen knelt down and turned toward the rock face a bit. "Good, stay there. Hold steady." After a moment, he whistled.

"What?" Devon said.

"I can't be certain, but I think Helen may have found proof of intelligent life on this planet," Bill said.

"What?" Devon said.

"Are you looking?" Bill said.

"Yes," Devon said questioningly.

"See that spot there, where the wall meets the path? I think those are tool marks," Bill said.

"You mean someone carved this path out of the wall of the canyon?" Devon said. "But—the scans all said there was no intelligent life here!"

"The scans were all given to us by the Council," Melanie said darkly. "Just like the sat images. It wouldn't surprise me if they'd monkeyed with all of it."

"It could be ancient, though," Devon said. "I mean, maybe whatever made this isn't here anymore."

"Maybe," Helen said. "But I'm not sure I want to count on that."

_She's right_, Devon thought. "How close are you to the bottom?" she asked.

"Not far—probably another ten minutes," Helen said.

"Go ahead and get down there, and then get back up here as fast as you can," Devon said. "I don't think I want any of us separated for long anymore."

"Roger," Helen said. Helen led Morgan on down the path, and within a few minutes they'd reached a relatively wide, flat space between the steep canyon walls. There was scrub brush scattered along the floor of the canyon, but mostly it was sand. There was a river flowing along the floor about fifteen meters from where the path reached the floor.

"Come on," Helen said, reaching around to unstrap the large plastic container they'd cannibalized from the escape pod. "Let's get these filled and get back up there."

"You don't have to ask me twice," Morgan said, still glancing around worriedly. They were filling the jugs when a loud crack reverberated down the canyon, echoing over and over.

"Jesus! What the hell was that?" Morgan said, flinging himself to the ground. "Somebody shooting at us?"

"It's okay," Melanie said over the gear. "It's thunder. There was a lightning strike just up—oh, crap…" Melanie said, and Helen heard her yank off her gear. "Everybody, get the hell away from the Transrover!" she yelled. "Get down on the ground, now! And stay clear of anything tall and metallic—get out of the tents!"

"What is it, Melanie?" Helen could hear Devon asking. "Why?"

"Devon, trust me, just do it!" Melanie said, and the fear in her voice came clearly over the gear.

_What's going on up there?_ Helen thought.

"Okay," Devon said. "You heard her, everybody! Move!"

"Helen," Melanie said coming back on the gear. "I think it might be raining up there, and it may have been doing it for a while. No, it's definitely raining farther upstream, it's starting to rain a little bit here."

Helen frowned. "Okay?" she said. "Is that dangerous? The water isn't toxic or something, is it?"

"I don't think so," Melanie said, and there was a brief pause. "No, Julia says it's fine. But what if it's raining a lot, and it's been doing it for a while north of us? I mean, I don't know how much water a storm like this produces, but think about it. A lot of water, a confined space like a canyon…"

Helen went white, and her head shot around to look back up at the canyon to the north. "Martin, get that jug filled, now!" she snapped, pushing her jug deep into the rushing water. "We have to get out of here."

"What? Why?" Morgan said.

"Just do it!" Helen ordered. They got the jugs filled after what seemed like an eternity to Helen and strapped them back onto their packs. _Damn, these are heavy_, she thought. _How fast can we move with these?_ She shook off the thought. _I have a feeling we're going to find out._ Helen took off for the path at a labored run.

"Slow down!" Morgan said. "This jug isn't exactly light, you know!"

"Martin, there's a good chance that any minute now this whole canyon could fill with water," Helen said over her shoulder, not slowing down a bit. "Do you want to be here if it does?"

Morgan's eyes got big, and he almost beat her to the path.

The sky above them was getting frighteningly dark. _Whatever is happening, it's happening fas_t, Helen thought. Raindrops started to splash down on them.

* * *

Melanie's orders took a while to make their way through the camp, but pretty soon, everyone was huddled on the ground in a low spot Melanie had picked out away from the camp, and just about everyone was asking why. Julia was helping Alonzo hop along, his arm draped over her shoulders. "What's going on?" Danziger said.

"Lightning," Melanie said. "That's the interference I was getting earlier—lightning strikes. Electrical discharges created by—oh, never mind—it's bolts of energy created by storms. Like the worst static ever. You have to have seen it on VR! You know, Stagecoach to Laramie? The big storm episode? Oh, come on, the one with the baby!" There were a lot of blank looks. "Listen, just trust me. As this storm moves over us, there's a good chance we'll get lightning strikes. They'll be most likely to hit tall objects—like the Transrover."

"Oh, crap," Danziger said. "How powerful an electrical discharge?"

"Yeah," Melanie said, seeing where he was headed with that question. "Powerful enough we could lose the solar generator."

"I'll go pull the panels," Danziger said.

"No, it's too dangerous," Melanie said, and another bolt of lightning lit the sky, followed seconds later by another boom. "See? We're already getting strikes."

"It'd be just as dangerous to lose the 'rover," Danziger said, and he ran for the Transrover, stopping on the way to grab his tool belt.

"Danziger, get back here!" Devon shouted over the rising wind. Rain was starting to pound down.

Danziger climbed onto the Transrover and started working on the panels.

"Wait," Julia said, looking up and holding out her hand and looking up at the sky, blinking as raindrops hit her face. "The rain…"

"What?" Alonzo said as she lowered him to the ground.

"It's water," Julia said emphatically, studying her diaglove as she ran it over her wet hand. "It's drinkable water! Rob, Rick, come help me!" She took off at a run back toward the camp.

"Oh!" Rick said, and scrambled up to run after her. "I get it!" Rob followed him.

"No, you—" Melanie shouted after them. "Julia! Rob! Come back! This lightning stuff is serious!" she shouted.

Julia grabbed one of the cases that contained some medical gear and dumped it unceremoniously onto the ground in front of her tent. She dragged it out into the space in front of the tent and opened it out flat. Rob and Rick skidded up. "Get more of these! Everything that can hold water," Julia said, and ran to get another case.

"Of course!" Rob said. "Great idea!" The two of them ran for more cases.

There was another flash of lightning, and the thunderclap followed almost instantly. "You idiots! The lightning is right on top of us!" Melanie shouted.

"Danziger!" Devon yelled furiously. "Julia! All of you, get back here!"

Danziger lifted a solar panel from the Transrover and jumped to the ground with it. He lowered it to the ground, then climbed back up and started working on another.

There was another flash, and this time Melanie could actually feel the heat from it. The thunderclap was so loud it left her ears ringing. Someone behind her was crying.

Danziger got the second panel off the Transrover and jumped to the ground. He started for the rail. Julia and the others were still getting boxes out in the open.

"Get back here!" Melanie shouted plaintively into the pouring rain.

* * *

Helen and Morgan scrambled up the path as the rain started to pound down harder. They were barely twenty meters up the trail when they started to hear a rumble in the distance. At first Helen wasn't sure she was hearing it with the echoes of the thunderclap still reverberating in the canyon, but as she sprinted up the trail, it became more distinct.

All at once, the canyon below them was hit by a roiling wall of water flowing out of the canyon to the north of them. "Oh, god!" Morgan breathed, realizing that they'd only barely gotten high enough in time. They were only a few meters above the raging water.

"Thank you, Melanie," Helen breathed, looking down at the torrent inundating the ground they'd just been on. The water was brown, churning with debris, bits of trees and other unidentifiable things. Helen watched as one big log was flung against the rocks below them and shattered into chunks of splintered wood. _That could have been us_, she thought sickly.

"Um," Morgan said. "I think the water's still rising. Shouldn't we…?"

Helen nodded, and started on up the trail. Morgan scrambled after Helen, but as he did, her foot slipped on the wet rock of the steep path and she fell, sliding towards the edge. Morgan grabbed for her pack as she slid past him, and he caught hold of one of the straps. She slid over the edge, grabbing desperately at the rocks, and Morgan threw himself onto the ground, trying to keep from being dragged off. He caught hold of a rock with his right hand and managed to hold on, the sharp edge of the rock digging painfully into his fingers.

"Don't let go!" Helen shouted, though he could barely hear her above the roar of the water raging below them. He could feel her flailing, trying to get some sort of foothold, but all it was doing was making it harder for him to hold on. The rain was pounding down, and he felt his hand on the rock starting to slip. _I should let her go,_ Morgan thought wildly, his arms shaking from the strain. _She's going to pull me off—I'm going to die._

But suddenly he could see Bess in his mind's eye, and he could imagine the look of disappointment she'd give him.

And he held on.

* * *

"Danziger, I swear to god, if you get hit by lightning, I'm going to kill you!" Devon shouted as Danziger yanked the solar panels from the rail. He turned and ran for the ATV.

"Heller!" Alonzo yelled. "Heller, where are you?"

Julia came running out of the rain and skidded to a stop next to him, splashing mud. Rick was right behind her, and Rob followed seconds later. "I think we might be able to get at least a few liters that way," Julia said breathlessly.

"Are you crazy!" Alonzo snapped.

"It was worth the risk," Rick said, coming to her defense. "It was a good idea, Alonzo. In a couple of days, you'll be really glad we did it."

"You all could have been killed!" Melanie said, grabbing Rob's arm and pulling him down just as there was another bright flash of lightning. Everyone ducked as the boom reverberated over them. Devon looked up and saw that one of the tents was on fire.

"Is it the med tent?" Julia gasped, and started to get up. Alonzo nearly tackled her.

"It's not—it's our tent," Valerie said and looked almost like she was ready to run to it, but Toshiko put her hand on her arm. She glanced over at Toshiko and sighed, shaking her head sadly as they watched the tent smoldering under the pouring rain.

Danziger ran up to them, grinning. "It's all good," he said. "The vehicles are fine."

"Our tent isn't," Toshiko said, almost in tears.

"It's okay, Tosh," Phoebe said. "It looks like the rain's putting out the fire. Maybe it's not so bad."

There was another flash, but this time the boom seemed a little later, and the rain seemed to be letting up a little. "It's moving off," Melanie said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Nobody move just yet, though. I want to be sure it's safe before we head back."

* * *

"Please…hang on, Morgan, I'm almost—" Helen said, and he felt the pull on his arm ease slightly. "Don't let go, don't let go," Helen said, gasping. He saw her hand reach up and grab hold of one of the rocks on the path, and she pulled herself up, struggling under the weight of her pack. Morgan pulled on the pack to help her up, groaning under the strain, and she finally collapsed onto the path, breathing hard.

They both lay there for a long time, then Morgan rolled onto his back, his face getting pelted by raindrops, and moaned. "I think I dislocated my arm. Arms. Both of them."

"Jesus," Helen breathed. "Morgan, you…" She looked over at him, her eyes wide, her blonde hair plastered against her head by the rain. "You saved my life."

Morgan looked back at her, just as wide-eyed. _I'm a hero_, he thought.

* * *

Toshiko and Valerie stood in front of their decimated tent, looking sadly at what was left of their gear. Valerie stepped into the charred mess, lifting the blackened remnants of tent up to look underneath.

"I bet a lot of it is salvageable," Rob said, trying to sound optimistic. "It looks like the tent didn't burn completely, so a lot of your stuff probably wasn't damaged at all."

Valerie seemed to be looking for something in the ruins. She dug through the pile of debris with a singleminded energy.

"It's just…it was a little crowded with two to a tent," Toshiko said. "How bad is it going to be with four?"

"It won't be so bad," Phoebe said. "It's not like you take up much space, after all."

Toshiko glared at her.

"We'll find another of the supply pods soon," Rob said reassuringly. "Then we'll be able to spread out again."

"You're such an optimist, Rob," Valerie said, tucking a stray lock of red hair behind her ear. She glanced over at where Julia and Rick were trying to transfer the water they'd captured into the storage tanks. "I tell you, though, there's one person I wouldn't share a tent with on a bet."

"What?" Toshiko said, following her glance. "Oh, Valerie—" she began.

"Between her stunt with that creature the other day and what she did today, I'd say that our doctor has a death wish," Valerie said darkly. "It's better to stay clear of people like that—I don't want to be collateral damage."

"Oh, come on," Rob said. "It wasn't that big a risk—and I was out there today, too."

Valerie looked steadily at him. "Collateral damage." She shook her head. "I'm just glad she's training Melanie. I have a feeling we're going to need her before long." She went back to digging through the mess.

Rob frowned at her as he headed to help Julia and Rick. Toshiko sighed. "Phoebe, could I talk to Valerie alone for a minute?"

Phoebe raised her eyebrows, but nodded and started for the mess tent.

Valerie looked sidelong at Toshiko. "Oh, don't tell me," she said. "I already know. 'Lay off the doctor, she's had it rough.' Bullshit."

"It's not bullshit," Toshiko said emphatically, and the shock of hearing Toshiko swear silenced Valerie for a moment, and Toshiko took advantage. "You have no idea what her life has been like, and you shouldn't hold what happened to Jamie against her. It wasn't her fault."

"How the hell would you know?" Valerie snapped. She pulled something out from under what had been her cot and began wiping away ash. It looked like a small plastic case of some sort.

Toshiko frowned. "I know a lot more than you think," she said, refusing to back down. "And a lot more than I wanted to know. I get why you don't like her—I really do—but if you knew what I know, you'd realize it isn't fair. And it's especially not fair since she has no idea what she did to make you act this way."

Valerie stood up, looming over Toshiko. "And you are not going to tell her, either," she said emphatically. "Or anybody else. Got it?"

"But—"

"I mean it, Tosh," Valerie said, and her manner had changed. She was almost pleading. "I just couldn't stand it if everybody knew."

"Devon knows," Toshiko said reasonably. "And she doesn't treat you any differently than she would if she didn't know."

"That's because Devon is the definition of focused. She tends to think about what's right in front of her and ignores everything else," Valerie said dryly, then looked hard at Toshiko. "Please, Tosh. This is important to me."

Toshiko sighed. "All right," she said finally. "I won't say anything—unless Julia asks me about you. I will not lie to her."

"Fine," Valerie said, and then looked faintly ashamed. "Look, I'm not going to get in her face, okay? I'll steer clear of her. Just let her know she needs to do the same for me. It may not be her fault, but just looking at her—" Valerie trailed off, her eyes shadowed. She shook her head, tucked her little case under one arm and headed off after Phoebe.

Toshiko sighed, watching her go. _This isn't going to be easy_, she thought.

* * *

"Helen, are you guys okay?" Melanie said over the gear.

"Yeah," Helen said, and she sounded odd. "But I have a hell of a story for you. Listen, I think we're going to sit tight where we are for the time being. The trail is really slick, and I don't want to fall off again."

"Again?" Devon said.

"Yeah, like I said, hell of a story," Helen said, and she sounded even odder. "And you won't believe the ending. We'll start up in the morning, okay?"

"You're sure you'll be okay where you are?" Devon said.

"Sure," Helen said reassuringly. "We stopped at a wider place on the trail. We'll be fine."

"Call us if you need anything," Devon said, and then realized how silly that was. _It's not like I'll be able to give them room service in the middle of the night._ She shook her head and turned to go talk to Julia.

She and Rob were carefully pouring the contents of one of the cases into his still. "How did we do?" Devon asked.

Julia shrugged once they finished pouring. "We got a few liters. And the condenser Rob and Danziger put together is working pretty well. If the moisture in the atmosphere lasts, we may have bought ourselves another day. Maybe two, depending on Helen and Morgan. Are they okay?"

"Yes," Devon said, "though Helen sounded a little rattled. Something happened, but she didn't want to tell me over the gear. My bet is she wants an audience for the story."

"Is she on her way up?" She nodded her thanks to Rob for the help with the water, and turned to talk to Devon.

Devon shook her head. "The trail's too slick. They're waiting till morning."

Julia nodded. "It's almost dark anyway," she said. "Better safe than sorry."

"Did you hear about their find?" Devon asked.

"Find?" Julia said. "No—what?"

"Helen thinks the trail isn't natural—somebody carved it out of the canyon wall."

Julia's eyes got wide. "You mean intelligent life? Here?" She looked out at the horizon, where the sun was slowly setting on the far side of the canyon, clearly thinking hard about the idea. She shook her head finally. "Well, that changes things. We'll have to be careful."

"Absolutely," Devon said. "But on the bright side, at least now we won't be completely surprised if something six-legged walks up to us and starts talking."

Julia laughed, still looking at the sunset.

Devon nodded, following Julia's gaze. "It makes you wonder what else the Council didn't tell us about this place, doesn't it?" she said without thinking, and instantly regretted it, remembering too late Julia's connection to the Council. Julia looked away. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

Julia held up her hand. "It's all right," she said. She looked back at Devon, her face lit by the dying orange glow of the sunset. "I'm not all that fond of the Council myself, you know." There was a dangerous edge to her voice.

* * *

Brendan paced in front of Julia in VR, nodding at her report. He turned to look at her intently. "You look a bit bedraggled," Brendan said. "Get caught in the rain?"

"Rain?" Julia said, caught off guard. "No…uh, no, I just…washed my hair in the stream we're following. It gives me an excuse for being away from the camp. Is that what those dark clouds to the southwest were?"

Brendan looked at her for a long time, so long Julia had to resist the urge to fill the silence. _Come on_, she thought, carefully keeping her expression neutral. _I'm not that stupid_.

Finally, he seemed to come to some sort of decision. "Tell me about the condition of your group. Aside from the man who can't walk, how is everyone else?"

"Generally, quite good, at least so far," Julia said slowly, wondering what he was trying to learn.

"And the boy with the syndrome—Adair's son?"

"He's up and down—I wish I could get his O2 sats to stabilize. But if you look at the trend over the last week, he's improving slowly," Julia said.

Brendan nodded. "Keep me informed," he said, and disappeared.

Julia frowned, flipping back the VR eyepiece. _Why the interest in Uly?_ she wondered uneasily, making her way back to camp in the twilight. _Maybe I shouldn't—_ She broke off the thought as she rounded the Transrover and nearly ran into Valerie. "Sorry," Julia said. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

Valerie nodded brusquely and shoved her way past Julia without a word, but after Julia had passed, she turned and looked back at the doctor, frowning.

* * *

_What the heck __is__ this thing?_ Melanie thought, looking at her tablet again. The signal had shown up about ten minutes earlier, and she'd recorded it like she had the second one she'd picked up, but she still couldn't make sense of either one of them.

_It __has__ to be something from one of the supply pods or the escape pods_, she thought, but there was something about the signal that made her uneasy. _I really need to figure this out_, she thought, but she couldn't come up with anything, not even a direction. _If we were on the stations, the strength of the signal and the lack of an identifiable locus would make me think it was a feed through the station wifi, but that just doesn't make any sense here. I suppose it could be something to do with the planetary magnetic field, but what?_

And then there was the encryption to complicate things further. It looked complicated, and without something to start from, she didn't think she could break it. She leaned back and shook her head. _Maybe if I pick it up again_, she thought, _I can get more information_. She set her tablet to scan for the signal on an ongoing basis, and to chime and start recording if it picked something up.

"Hey, Mel," Julia said, ducking in through the tent flap. "Did you get some dinner?"

"No, not yet," Melanie said absently.

"Do you want me to go grab you something and bring it back?" Julia offered.

"Hmm?" Melanie said, then shook her head and stood up. "No…no, I'll go get it myself. But thanks." She headed for the tent flap, clearly still lost in thought.

Julia watched her go, wondering if she should ask about it, but she just couldn't seem to make herself do it. _And that's what makes Melanie a better person than me. She wouldn't even think about it—she'd just ask._

* * *

Helen and Morgan finally returned the next day in the early afternoon to find the group packed and ready to move out. They were both exhausted from lugging the heavy jugs of water they'd gotten. It hardly seemed worth the effort once Helen told the story. Amazingly, Morgan kept quiet during the whole story, and he actually looked almost embarrassed when Helen thanked him in front of everyone.

"He managed to hold on to me, with my whole pack plus ten liters of water strapped on it," Helen said wonderingly. "I don't think I could have done it."

"Do you want me to have a look at your shoulders?" Julia asked him. "You could have torn—"

"No," Morgan said uncomfortably. "I'm fine."

Julia shot Melanie an amazed look. _Hypochondriac Morgan Martin, refusing treatment? Will wonders never cease?_ she thought.

"Is there any chance we could go back down?" Bill asked Helen.

Helen looked skeptical. "I'd be willing to try it, but it'd be risky," she said after thinking about it for a moment. "It was pretty treacherous coming back up. And it looked like the flood may have washed away part of the lower end of the trail."

Devon shook her head. "I don't think we can afford to waste the time trying—we don't have that many of the smaller containers. We'd have to send too many people down too many times to get enough water for even an extra day. Hopefully, as we head north, the canyon won't be as deep, and we might be able to get down to the water more easily."

Julia nodded, resigned.

"Let's move out, everyone," Devon said. "We can at least get a few kilometers north before we make camp again. Helen, you and Morgan can take the rail. You've earned the break."

Bess grabbed Morgan's hand before he could start for the rail. "Morgan," she said, smiling at him, "I am so very proud of you."

"Bess," he said seriously, "I wouldn't have done it if it weren't for you."

"Of course you would," Bess said. "That's why I married you." She squeezed his hand and started off.

Morgan watched her go, wishing for the thousandth time that he was half the man Bess seemed to think he was.

* * *

"Hey, Heller!" Alonzo called, and she turned to see him pull up next to her in the ATV.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, squinting in the afternoon sun.

"Actually, I was going to ask you that," he said with a contemplative look.

Julia frowned. "I don't know what you mean," she said.

"I mean, that whole thing with the sabertooth, then yesterday with the lightning—are you trying to prove something?"

"Of course not," she said, looking surprised. "Those were calculated risks."

"Calculated?" he said, shaking his head in amusement, but there was an undercurrent of anger. "You have some weird math, Heller."

"I don't understand why it bothers you," she said.

He looked at her for a long moment, his expression unreadable. "Don't you?" he said quietly, and then sped off in the ATV.

Julia watched him go, completely baffled by his behavior.

"That was interesting," Melanie said, coming up next to her.

Julia sighed. "Don't start, Melanie," she said.

"I've known Alonzo Solace for a long time," Melanie said. "I've never seen him like this before."

"Like what?" Julia said. "Annoyingly cryptic?"

Melanie looked at her, smiling slightly. "Boy, for somebody who's so good at logic, you sure have trouble grasping the obvious."


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Thanks for the great reviews! I'm always interested to know what you think as you go along-it's actually very helpful. This is a big story, with lots of characters, all of whom need their own development, so as I go, we'll be getting more into some of the other characters. Like in this chapter! You'll get to see some more of Tru and Danziger, and a little more of Devon. And Yale. And...a tiny bit more of Valerie. Everybody has history, and you'll get a lot of it as we go along. As they say, the past is prologue. For those of you who know the original series well, this is sort of my homage to Water, which was an mmmmmmmmmm...yummy episode._

* * *

Earth Two

Chapter 5

It had been two days since they almost lost Morgan and Helen at the canyon, and the water situation was starting to get bad. Julia's quick thinking had gotten them almost six liters, but with the additional twenty from Morgan and Helen, they barely added a quarter of a day. And the trek north along the edge of the canyon was slow going, with rough terrain and an almost incessant wind blowing out of the north.

Danziger pulled up in the rail, and Devon went up to him. "What did you find?" she asked.

He shook his head, slapping dust off his jacket. "It doesn't get much easier," he said. "There are a bunch of ravines that feed into the canyon, so we're going to have to turn back east a bit to get around them. After that, it's a whole lotta dry."

"God, how far does this canyon go?" Devon said. "And why the hell didn't it show up on the sat images?"

"Mel thinks the sat images were taken at a point when there was a dust storm," Danziger said, "which is pretty easy to believe." He gestured at the wind blowing around them. "That could have made the canyon look a lot smaller."

"But we have to get to the foothills again soon, right?" Devon said.

Danziger nodded. "Mel thinks probably another day or so and we'll be getting some altitude, depending on how far east we have to backtrack."

Julia came up. "Did you find any water?" she asked Danziger.

He shook his head. "There might be a way down to the canyon bottom in one of the ravines, but it'll have to be on foot, which could make getting water back out a lot of work."

"I think we need to cut back on the ration," Julia said, looking worried. "If I keep pushing the synthlab to produce water like this, we could damage it, and it's not big enough to keep up with the demand anyway."

"What about the condenser?" Devon asked.

Julia shrugged. "It was a great idea, and Danziger made it work better than I had hoped," she said, nodding at him, "but it's entirely dependent on the amount of moisture in the air. Right after the storm, we got quite a bit. But since then, the air has gotten a lot drier. We got barely a half-liter in the last hour."

Devon nodded. "Cut the ration. Danziger, we have to keep moving. Let's get as far as we can before we lose power tonight."

* * *

Uly looked up interestedly as Julia climbed into the Transrover cab. "What's going on?" he asked.

"We're still heading north," Julia said. "Not much else."

"Have you seen any more animals?" he asked.

Julia shook her head. "Hold still, let me check your vitals," she said, and held the diaglove to his chest. O2 sats at 98! She looked hard at the diaglove, then ran it again to be sure. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I feel really good today," Uly said. "Can I go outside?"

Julia frowned. "I don't think I'm quite ready to go that far," she said. "But you are doing better. It could be that your body is adjusting to the new environment, or you're recovering from the stress of the crash. If it's the latter, I don't want to overstress you by exposing you to the outside air just yet."

Uly's face fell.

"But," she said, "if your O2 sats stay at this level through tomorrow, I'll let you go out for a little while once we camp."

He looked at her with narrowed eyes. "You'd better," he said. "I don't appreciate being lied to."

Julia fought back a grin. "I will," she said. "And your health is one thing I would never lie to you about, Uly." She looked over at Todd. "Don't let him talk your ear off, Todd."

"Hey, he lets me talk history," Todd said, smiling. "I'm having a great time in here. We've been talking about the Black Death."

"Did you know the Mongols threw dead bodies over the walls with a catapult?" Uly said. "That's how the disease got to Italy!"

Julia grinned, then climbed out of the cab and dropped lightly to the ground.

"How's he doing?" Devon asked, coming up.

Julia smiled. "Remarkably well, Devon," she said. "His O2 sats are the highest I've ever seen them, and they've been increasing for two days. And that's even with all the dust in the air. I know the scrubbers Danziger set up can't keep up with it. There's a layer of dust on the dashboard in there." She shook her head. "Something has changed—I don't know what it is, but I'm beginning to think you were right about bringing him here."

"You mean it?" Devon breathed, and she stopped cold.

Julia nodded, stopping with her. "Don't get too excited," she cautioned, seeing the look in Devon's eyes. "It's possible this is just an anomaly. I probably shouldn't have said anything yet."

"But…Julia!" Devon said, her eyes shining. She flung her arms around the doctor, who looked surprised, then returned the hug gently. "Thank you!"

"Hey," Julia said, pulling away. "I didn't do anything here. I wish I had—then I'd know what had changed. But I'm going to keep working on it. If I can figure out what it is that is different here, then maybe we can send the news back to the stations."

"You'll figure it out," Devon said confidently. She ran to catch up with the Transrover. Julia watched her climb onboard.

_I hope she's right_, Julia thought, walking after the rover. _That would make everything worth it._

* * *

"Hey, Mel," Alonzo said, rolling up next to her as she trudged along in the dust. "I need a favor."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "What sort of favor?"

"I need some advice," he said.

"Advice," she said, half-smiling. "Really. About what exactly?"

"Well," he said uncertainly, and she caught his sidelong glance over at the Transrover and Julia walking alongside it.

"No way," Melanie said. "You're asking my advice about a woman?"

"Hey, you were the one who said I didn't understand women," he said.

"And you were the one who said you didn't want to," Melanie shot back. "Look, 'Zo, I think the flirting is fun, and I tease her about you and all, but if I thought for a minute that you were really going to go after her—"

"I never said anything about going after her," he said. "Look, I know better. We're stuck here for two years together. The last thing I want to do is love her and leave her and not be able to really leave her. That would be suicidal."

"So what, then?" Melanie said. "What do you want?"

He blinked. "I don't know," he said, looking baffled.

"Well, here's some advice, then," Melanie said. "Until you know exactly what you want, you'd better stay clear of her."

"That's kind of difficult," he said. "She is my doctor, after all. Come on, Mel, I'm not talking about you telling me how to seduce her. I just want to know her."

"In the Biblical sense, I'll bet," Melanie said.

"No! At least, not yet," he said, and then saw Melanie's eyes narrow again. "I'm kidding! I have to spend all this time with her, and I feel so awkward. If I knew her better, it'd be a lot nicer." He looked at her with sad eyes. "Please?"

Melanie glanced back over at the Transrover. _She needs to loosen up_, she thought. _And they don't come looser than Alonzo Solace_. "Zo, I barely know her. What makes you think I can help you?"

"You've been around her more than anybody," he said. "Besides, I trust your judgment."

_Don't do it_, the logical side of her said. _This is a supremely bad idea._ But the romantic in her won out. _Like it always has and always will_, she thought, sighing inwardly. "Okay," she said finally. "But I swear, if you make a play for her—"

"No, that's not what this is about," he said. "I promise."

* * *

"Hello, Devon," Julia said, coming over to Devon's tent after they made camp that evening. "Is Yale around?"

"He's inside with Uly," Devon said, tying down the last of the biocord holding the tent in place. "Is something wrong?"

"No, not at all," Julia reassured her quickly. "I was talking to Tosh the other day about trying to reconstruct everyone's medical records, and she said Yale might be able to help."

"I would be happy to assist you, Dr. Heller," Yale said, coming out of the tent. "I have employment records for everyone affiliated with the Eden Project, including the crew of the ship. Many of those records include medical information. I could download the information into a tablet for you."

"That would be very helpful," Julia said.

"This won't take long," Yale said to Devon.

"Don't worry about it," she said, looking a little chagrined. "I owe Uly about a dozen stories anyway. Take your time."

Yale nodded and followed Julia to the med tent. Once inside, she picked up a tablet from the lab table.

"How would you like the information formatted?" he asked, taking it from her and extending a jack from the index finger on his left hand. Julia was surprised she hadn't realized that it wasn't just a techglove—it was actually integrated into his hand.

"Um, it doesn't really matter," she said, realizing she'd been staring. "I'll have to find the information specific to my needs, so I can convert as I go if I need to."

He nodded and plugged his finger into the tablet. He closed his eyes, and she could see data flashing across the tablet screen at a remarkable rate.

"Um, Julia?" Morgan said from outside the tent flap.

_Lord, give me strength_, Julia thought. "Yes, Morgan?"

"Can I come in?"

"Of course," she said with a hint of impatience.

Yale pulled his finger free of the tablet and handed it to her. "I believe I have transferred anything you may need," he said. "And I have extensive data in a variety of areas. If I can ever be of assistance in any way, please do not hesitate to ask."

"Thank you, Yale," she said as Morgan shouldered his way past the tent flap. He saw Yale and stiffened.

Yale nodded at Julia and turned to go. Morgan stepped quickly away from the tent flap to let him pass.

"Is something wrong, Morgan?" Julia asked.

"I don't trust that thing," he said darkly.

"What? Yale? Why?"

"He's a cyborg," Morgan said as if it were self-evident.

"Yes, and…?" Julia said.

"He's first-generation," Morgan said. "Haven't you heard the stories about the first-generations?"

Julia frowned. "Actually, no," she said. She knew the cyborg program was relatively recent, and they were still fairly uncommon. But she had no experience with them herself.

"Trust me, the first-generation cyborgs had all sorts of problems," he said. "They were still working out the kinks in the interface between the computer systems and the brain. If it hadn't been for the fact that they were using convicts as the base, I don't think they'd have ever continued the program."

Julia frowned. "How do you know all this?" she said.

Morgan looked annoyed. "I was one of the guys who had to clean up the mess when one of those things went off the rails," he said. "That was back when I was just a level 2. They always gave us the dirty jobs. Trust me, you do not want to know what a cyborg unit can do."

"Oh, come on," Julia said. "How bad could it have been if nobody knows about it?"

Morgan gave her a dark look. "Really bad. There's a reason I made level four, Julia. Despite what you might think, I'm actually pretty good at what I do. The coverup on the cyborg program was thorough."

_Of course_, Julia thought. _It was a Council program. They'd never let any failures go public._ "But they were still mostly successful, weren't they?" Julia said. "And certainly Yale has been a success. Do you honestly think Devon would let him near Uly if she didn't trust him completely?"

"It's not the successful ones I worry about," Morgan said grimly. "The problem is, you don't know when a successful one might turn into a spectacular failure. Remember, the original human underneath all that computer overlay was a criminal."

Julia sighed. _Morgan's flair for the dramatic at work again_, she thought. "Did you need something from me, Morgan?" she said.

He frowned at her, then blinked. "Oh, uh, yes," Morgan said, looking embarrassed. "Um…I…have another rash."

Julia turned to grab her diaglove, rolling her eyes once her back was turned. _Here we go again_, she thought.

* * *

By late the next day, they'd barely made ten kilometers northward. They'd had to track east to get around a deep ravine, and then turned north and found themselves in a weird landscape. It was mostly rock, broken by fissures with grass popping up inside. The wheeled vehicles had less trouble with it than those walking, but occasionally one of the rocky parts crumbled. They had to lever the rail out of one of them. Devon had Danziger call a halt as they were finally getting to what seemed to be the edge of it. There was a wide plain in front of them with very little vegetation. But in the distance, they could see the foothills.

"We should be able to get to the foothills by the end of the day tomorrow, shouldn't we?" Devon asked Danziger, walking up to where he was standing on the edge of the camp. He was twirling his gear in one hand absently.

"Don't get your hopes up, Adair. I thought we'd be there today, but that rocky crap back there had other ideas."

Devon nodded, staring out at the sunset. Then she frowned. "Do you hear something?" she said.

"You mean besides that bellowing Bill likes to call singing?" Danziger said dryly.

"Shh," Devon said, walking forward into the dry flats. "I thought…" She went a few steps more. "Danziger, I think I hear…water."

"Huh?" He followed her, listening. He couldn't hear it at first, but then he caught the faint sound of something that could have been trickling water.

Devon walked a few steps farther. "It sounds louder over here," she said. She looked around. "Maybe it's some sort of underground spring."

Danziger tapped the gear in his hand and held the mic up to his mouth. "Bill, get a couple of those shovels and bring Rick and Rob out here."

"What's up?" Bill said.

"We might have found a water source," Danziger said. He followed Devon out into the flats, and she was right—it was louder.

Danziger glanced back and saw Bill and the others headed for them. And then he heard an ominous cracking sound.

He spun around and saw Devon freeze. "Uh, Danziger, I think you better step b—" she began, and then she yelped as the ground beneath her started to crumble away.

"Devon!" Danziger yelled, dropping his gear and diving to try to grab her hand as she fell, but even as he caught it, the ground he landed on started to fall away, and he was falling. He didn't even have time to think about what was happening before he was splashing with a painful sting headfirst into water. Deep water. He flailed wildly, losing hold of Devon's hand, and he had no idea which way the surface was.

He felt a hand grab his arm and pull, and for a moment he resisted, afraid he was being pulled under, but the hand pulled back insistently, and then his head broke through and he gasped for air. He started to go under again and flailed, trying to stay afloat, but nothing he did seemed to help.

"Danziger!" Devon gasped. "Don't—" He lost what she said as his head went under again. He could feel her pulling at him, but he couldn't seem to get back to the surface. He started to panic. His head broke the surface again and he gulped frantically at the air.

"Danziger, stop fighting me!" Devon shouted into his ear, and he realized she had one arm around his chest. He struggled for a moment, afraid he was going to go down again. "God damn it, John, stop!" Devon yelled, and she sounded scared. "You're going to pull me—"

She must have gone under, because he lost her voice, and then he felt the water coming up over him again, and he started to struggle harder, which only made the urge to breath that much stronger.

And then, amazingly, he felt her push up, and they both gasped for air. "Stop…fighting…me, you idiot!" Devon gasped. "I found…the bottom." She coughed, and Danziger felt her pull him toward her and his feet touched a rocky surface. He slipped once, then got both feet under him and then she was helping him crawl onto a smooth rock.

There was a faint light from above and Danziger rolled onto his back, taking great, heaving breaths. Devon was on her hands and knees next to him, panting. She coughed hard again, then looked over at him. "Are you okay?" she said finally.

He nodded, still trying to catch his breath.

"I take it…you don't know how to swim," she said, her smile barely visible in the dim light. Her voice echoed in the cavern.

"You do?" he said incredulously.

She nodded. "When we decided on the New Pacifica site, I had several of us get lessons—just in case." She laughed, which started her coughing again. After a moment, she said, "Looks like it came in handy."

_Damn_, Danziger thought, still trying to catch his breath, _that must have cost a fortune_. He'd heard about Devon's fundraising skill, but he was starting to wonder just how good she really was. This whole expedition would have cost an astronomical amount at the most basic levels. _And she didn't even bat an eyelid at giving us hazard pay…wow._

Devon looked up and he saw the jagged hole they must have fallen through. Devon grabbed at her headgear, and was amazed it was still in place. "Bill!" she said. "Stay back from the hole—it's unstable!"

"Devon! Thank god," Bill said. "Yeah, we figured that out. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Devon said. "The good news is, we found water."

Bill laughed shakily. "Next time, I'd be fine with just a puddle, okay?"

"Devon, are either of you injured?" Julia's voice came over the gear.

"Danziger, are you hurt?" Devon asked.

"I'm good," Danziger said. "Just really wet. And cold."

The moment he said it, Devon realized just how cold it was. The water had been shockingly cold, and the air in the cavern they were in wasn't much better.

"How cold?" Julia said, sounding concerned.

"It's a bit chilly," Devon said. Her clothes felt icy against her skin, and she started to shiver.

"Are you in water now?" Julia said.

"No, we found a…a beach, I guess," Devon said, unsure of what to call what they were sitting on. She looked around. "It looks like we're at the edge of a cavern. There's a big pool of water, deep enough I couldn't touch bottom in the middle."

"Hang on," Bill said. "We'll figure out how to get you out of there."

"Don't come anywhere near that hole," Devon said. "From here, it looks like it could get a whole lot bigger, and I'd rather not have a bunch of rocks—or you—fall on our heads."

"If you can, try to keep moving," Julia said. "But stay out of the water."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Devon said, looking around in the dim light. There didn't look to be very many options of where to be. The rock they were on was barely big enough for the two of them, and the water came up around it on both sides, with rock wall behind it. _I guess we sit tight and wait for rescue_, Devon thought, and tried not to worry about how long it might take.

* * *

"What do we do?" Rob said in the fading sunset. "We can't go out to the hole, it could all collapse on them."

Melanie came up with her tablet. "I've got a fix on Devon's gear. She's about 15 meters down, and maybe 6 meters that way," she pointed. "Hey, look, there's Danziger's gear."

Rob grabbed her arm. "Don't try to get it," he said. "It's not safe."

Bill looked thoughtful. "Devon," he said, "you said you were at the edge of the cavern?"

"Yeah," Devon said. "It's hard to see, but there's a wall back behind us." She paused. "It slopes back away from us, but it's pretty steep."

"Okay," Bill said. "Here's what we do. If they're about 6 meters that way, my bet is the wall she's talking about slopes back towards us. So we start digging," he took a couple of steps forward, "here. I'm betting we're on stable ground here—the weird rocks we've been crawling over all day are probably some sort of harder stone, and the stuff around them is something like limestone—it dissolves away when it gets wet."

Rob nodded. "That makes sense—and the cavern they're in eroded away from years of water running down through those gaps in the harder stone, and that's why there's the pool there. So if we stick close to the harder stone, we should be safe from another collapse."

Rick hefted one of the shovels Danziger had machined out of the pod panels. "So let's start digging."

"Be careful," Melanie said to Rob as he hefted his shovel.

"We need to hurry," Julia said. "It's going to get cool up here, which means it'll be really cold down there."

"It's already really cold down here," Devon said, and Julia could hear her shivering.

Julia kicked herself for leaving her channel open. She shut it off, then watched Rick and Rob digging, trying to think of something she could do.

"It's going to be a while before they get anywhere," Melanie said to her. "Would you do me a favor?"

"Sure," Julia said, frowning.

"Go find Tru and tell her what's going on," Melanie said. "I think Uly's already asleep. But you know Tru won't sleep unless Danziger's there to make her."

Julia hesitated. _I'm not the person she needs to hear this from_, she thought, but she found herself nodding anyway. "Keep a channel open to them and make sure they keep talking. If they sound lethargic, if they stop shivering, let me know_." Right, like there's anything I can do about it_, she thought. "I also need to get Solace doing some physical therapy," she added. "I'd planned on starting with him tonight, and I don't want to wait—it's going to be bad enough as it is."

"Good," Melanie said, and she had a weird look. "You have a nice time."

_Have a nice time?_ Julia thought as she headed off to look for Tru. _What is __that__ supposed to mean?_

It took Julia a while to find Tru. She'd found a spot in the back of the Transrover that was almost impossible to see her in. "Hey," Julia said, clambering onto the back of the rover, trying to figure out what she should say next.

"Hey," Tru said. "So my dad's in a hole with Devon, right?"

_I should have known she'd have already heard_, Julia thought. "Yes," she said.

"Okay," Tru said.

Julia chewed her lip. "Look, I know you and your dad aren't exactly…close, but…" she trailed off, feeling completely inadequate.

"I'm okay, Julia," Tru said. "It's not like I haven't done this before, y'know."

"Done what before?" Julia said, frowning.

Tru rolled her eyes enough that Julia could see it in the fading daylight. "My mom died—Dad told you that, right? So I've got some experience there, see?"

"We're going to get them out, Tru," Julia said insistently.

"Sure," Tru said.

"I mean it—Bill and the others are making good progress. They think they'll get through soon, and—"

"Julia," Tru said patiently. "I'm fine."

"And you want me to shut up," Julia said.

"Yeah."

"Do you want me to go away?" Julia asked.

There was a pause. "No, you can stay," Tru said.

Julia nodded, and tried to find a spot that was at least marginally comfortable. It wasn't easy—there were boxes and ropes and all sorts of things piled everywhere, but she finally managed to clear a spot.

"How old are you?" Tru asked suddenly.

"Twenty-four," Julia said, surprised.

"And you and your mom don't talk?"

"It's…complicated," Julia hedged. "I might try if I had the chance, but…"

"Why?"

_You really know how to ask the tough questions_, Julia thought. _Because she's here. Because she looked so scared—and not just for herself._ "Because she sent me that message warning me about the bomb, I guess," Julia said finally. "And she said she loved me."

"My dad says it sometimes, but I wonder—"

"He means it," Julia said with quiet confidence.

"How do you know?"

"Because they don't have to say it," Julia said.

* * *

"How are you doing, Devon?" Melanie asked over the comm. She started tying a small piece of metal onto the end of a length of biocord.

"I'm getting really tired of answering that question," Devon said, shaking. "I'm the same as I was five minutes ago, and five minutes before that."

"Okay, so irritability seems to be a new symptom," Melanie said. Bill looked at her, and she shrugged and shut off the channel. "Hey, if she's mad at me, she's still awake, right?" She flipped the channel back on. "And Danziger?" She finished tying the piece of metal onto the biocord and looked out towards Danziger's gear, which was lying awfully close to the edge of the hole they'd fallen in.

"The same," Devon said tersely. "What the hell is taking so long?"

"We're working as fast as we can, Devon," Melanie said. "Our tools are a bit limited."

Devon looked over at Danziger. They were both sitting with their arms wrapped around their legs on their little rock shelf. It felt like the temperature was dropping by the minute, even though Devon knew it wasn't that bad. She shivered again.

"Hey, Adair—" Danziger began.

"Don't you even think about suggesting we huddle together for warmth, Danziger," she said. "I am nowhere near that cold yet."

Danziger burst out laughing. "Got it," he said, nodding. "Not a problem, Adair. I can be patient."

She chuckled. "What were you going to say?"

"Just…thanks," he said. "I'd much rather freeze to death than drown."

"It was my pleasure," she said. "But for the record, I have no intention of freezing to death in a hole. We'll get out of this."

* * *

Julia finally got Tru to lie down to sleep, though she doubted she'd stay that way, but she was still waiting for word on Devon and Danziger. She finally came over to Alonzo's bunk to see if he was still up.

"Hey, Heller," he said. "Any news?"

She shook her head. "Last I heard they were still digging. Bill thinks they've got to be getting close, since Devon thought they'd fallen about 15 meters. On the plus side, it sounds like once we get through to them, we'll have plenty of water."

"'Water, water, everywhere and oh, the ground did sink,'" Alonzo said. "So what's with the housecall?" Alonzo said.

"I wanted to get started on your physical therapy," Julia said, looking at him oddly. _First Shakespeare, and now he's making jokes with Coleridge? I do __not__ know what to make of you, Alonzo Solace._

"Now?" he said.

"I'd planned to start tonight, and we really shouldn't wait any longer—it's only going to get harder," she said.

"Wow," he said, clearly trying not to grin, "when you make up your mind, you just go straight to light speed, don't you?"

"Solace," she said, tilting her head and glaring at him. "You know what I meant—"

"Not that I mind," he said. "I like my women to be direct. Just…be gentle with me, Heller."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, so I need you in a position where you can get as much range of motion in your leg as possible, so maybe if you sat on the fender of the ATV." She helped him over, and he winced as he shifted his leg once he'd gotten settled. "How's your pain level?"

"Probably about a three," he said. "It's mostly aching right now."

"That's going to change," Julia said, and he looked up at her, frowning. She tried to look reassuring. "The osteomycin encourages the development of bone in the areas of fractures. But it can also encourage it elsewhere, usually in areas close to the fracture. Part of the point of the PT we're going to do is to make sure that the areas where the tendons connect the muscle tissue to the bone don't develop calcium deposits that can impede the range of motion or calcify the tendons."

"English, Heller," Alonzo said.

"We're going to have to break those deposits down by moving your leg, and it's going to hurt," Julia said.

* * *

Julia's instructions to try to keep moving proved rather difficult to follow. Devon tried to stand and nearly went back into the water when her foot slipped. The rock they were on had clearly been worn smooth by years of water falling on it, and it was still a little damp. Devon finally gave up and just sat back down.

"So talk to me, Danziger," she said, finally unable to stand the silence anymore.

"About what?"

"Tell me about Tru," she said.

He snorted. "What you see is pretty much what you get with her. Trouble with a capital T."

"Has she always been like that?"

He hesitated. "Well, she's always been…energetic," he said finally. "But the trouble really started after her mom died."

"What happened?" Devon said.

"We split when Tru was three. Short range jobs were few and far between, so I had to start taking sleep runs, and she couldn't handle the life anymore. And I couldn't justify taking Tru with me, so…"

"So you missed a lot of her growing up," Devon said.

"Yeah," Danziger said. "Then Ellie got sick while I was on the first leg of a two-year gig. It happened fast—a brain tumor. And neither of us had any family left. So Tru ended up with Station Services till I got back."

Devon winced. She'd heard some of the stories about the station foster child system. It was amazing Tru was as easy to get along with as she was.

"Anyway, when I got back, she was more than a little bit pissed off at me. Not that I blame her—I should have been there. But the last thing she wanted was the life of a sleep-jumper, and that was the only life I could give her."

"And now here you are, stuck on G-889 together," Devon said.

"Yeah," Danziger said, but he didn't sound too unhappy about it. "The thing is, this is probably about the best thing that could have happened to us. She's with the same group of people for the longest time since her mom, she has good role models—hell, she thinks the world of Julia already, and she thinks you're…" He stopped.

"She thinks I'm what?" Devon said, too curious to let it go.

"Well, the exact word she used was 'badass.' I guess anybody who can tell me what to do is pretty impressive to her."

Devon laughed out loud. "I like that," she said. "Badass. Yeah, my ex would sure agree with that, though I doubt he'd use the term with a positive connotation."

"What happened to him?" Danziger said.

"He wasn't what I thought he was when I married him," Devon said simply. "And when Uly started to get sick, he disappeared. I think it's just as well. We were never really a good fit."

"So why'd you marry him?" Danziger said, and Devon had to smile at his bluntness.

"Good question," she said. "I guess because it was expected. It was about the closest thing to an arranged marriage you'd find nowadays—his parents and my parents were in business together. Don't get me wrong, I liked him. But we got married before I really understood what it meant to…care that way about someone." She sighed. "I wouldn't change a thing, though," she said after a long pause. "He gave me Uly."

* * *

"Okay," Julia said after fifteen very long minutes, trying not to sound relieved. Alonzo's physical therapy was important—she hadn't been joking about that—but it wasn't easy to see him in that kind of pain. "That's enough for today."

"Thank god," Alonzo said, breathing hard. "You're killing me, Heller."

She turned to set her diaglove on the seat of the rail, hoping he hadn't noticed her look.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were enjoying it," Alonzo said after a long moment. Julia turned, ready to protest, and he was grinning at her. "Gotcha," he said. "Sometimes you are just too easy to read, Heller. And the rest of the time, I don't have a clue."

_Thank god for that_, Julia thought. "The PT is important, Solace. It'll get you walking sooner."

"I know," he said. "Otherwise, I wouldn't put up with it. Listen, Heller, I wanted to say thank you for this."

"You don't have to thank me—it's what I do," she said, looking uncomfortable.

"It may be your job, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't get some appreciation for it," Alonzo said.

She frowned, then glanced down at the ground.

"This is the part where you say, 'You're welcome,'" Alonzo said, trying to catch her eye.

Julia looked up at him and smiled ironically. "You're welcome," she said.

"There, that wasn't so hard, was it? You just keep hanging out with me, and you'll master the art of conversation in no time."

* * *

"Danziger," Devon said. "You're not falling asleep, are you?"

"Nah, I'm good," Danziger rumbled.

"Good," Devon said. She started to say something else, then hesitated.

"What?" Danziger said.

"Nothing," Devon said.

"Adair," Danziger said warningly. "If you have something to say…"

"I don't…I mean, I…I had a question, really," Devon said, uncharacteristically flustered.

"So ask," he said.

"Well, as long as we're slowly freezing to death, I guess I might as well," Devon said finally. She turned off her gear. "I've been wondering about you and me." Danziger tensed, and Devon realized what that sounded like. "Not like that! I meant…when we first crashed, and O'Neill died, you never once questioned my authority. You could have then, and several times since, but as annoying and insubordinate as you can be, you've never once tried to take charge. Why?"

"Annoying and insubordinate?" he said. "Well, I guess I have seen those words on employee evaluations before."

"I'm sure," Devon said dryly. "Now answer the question."

"I know how important unit cohesion is," he said matter-of-factly, and his choice of terms intrigued Devon. _Was he in the military?_ she wondered. _I'll have to see what Yale has on file for him._ "We're stuck here with each other, and if we're going to survive, we have to be able to work together. I've seen what happens when you have a weak leader in charge. It isn't pretty."

"Okay," Devon said when it was clear he wasn't going to elaborate. "I get that. But that doesn't answer the question. You could have taken charge, but you didn't. Why?"

"The Eden Project folks already looked to you as the person in charge," he said as if it were obvious. "And the crew knew me as Danziger, the guy who fixes stuff, not the guy who runs things. It just didn't make sense. Besides…" He stopped.

"What?"

"You'd have taken me out at the knees if I'd tried," he said, and she could hear the grin in his voice. "You're pretty famous on the stations, y'know. I'm not about to stand up to a woman the Council couldn't figure out how to shut up."

"Devon!" Melanie called. "Why is your gear off?"

"Sorry," Devon said into the gear after switching it on. "I was adjusting it and I must have accidentally turned it off."

Danziger snorted.

"How are they doing?" Julia asked Melanie, coming up behind her. There was something strange her voice, and Melanie turned to look at her. She looked slightly flushed.

"They're hanging in there," Melanie said. "Devon's sounding a little groggy, though."

"Are we any closer to getting to them?"

Melanie sighed. "They ran into some really dense rock a minute ago. Bill's trying to decide whether to try to break through it, or to move and start digging somewhere else."

Julia shook her head. "They need to get there soon," she said. "If Devon's starting to get lethargic, they're in the early stages of hypothermia. Listen, why don't you go get some rest. I'll take over here."

"In a minute," Melanie said, tossing the piece of metal towards Danziger's gear for what seemed like the hundredth time. _Why can't I hit the right spot? _she thought, reeling it back in yet again. "Did you find Tru?"

"Yes, and I got her to go to sleep about half an hour ago. She's doing okay, at least so far, anyway," Julia said.

"And how about the, uh, PT with Alonzo?" Melanie said with an odd, half-expectant tone.

Julia looked at her hard. "Melanie, what's—?"

"Oooo!" Melanie said as the piece of metal finally landed inside the curve of the gear's band. "Gotcha!" She started to reel the biocord in carefully, dragging the gear with it.

"Wait a minute!" Rob said suddenly. He climbed out of the hole. "The Transrover!"

"What about it?" Bill said, looking confused.

"It's a mining vehicle," Rob said, looking chagrined. "There have to be some tools for this kind of work, right?"

"I am an idiot," Bill said, his eyes wide. "Go, look!" and Rob took off at a run.

"I'll help," Melanie said, tucking Danziger's gear into her jacket and sounding relieved. She jumped to her feet and followed him.

Julia watched her go, frowning, then finally tapped her headset. "Devon, it's Julia. How are you doing?"

"Hi, J-julia," Devon said, her teeth chattering. "We're just peachy."

"I need you to keep talking to me," Julia said.

"S-sure," Devon said. "What should we talk about?"

"Um, I don't know," Julia said, at a loss.

"You should know better, Devon," Danziger said under his breath. "She's not exactly a great conversationalist."

"Oh?" Devon said, killing the connection. "And you are?"

"I've been doing fine so far," Danziger said. "I didn't hear you complaining."

"Devon?" Julia said.

Devon switched the connection back on. "Sorry," she said. "Danziger thinks he's f-funny."

"I see," Julia said. "Look, I hate to ask this, but are you two close together? Because I think you should be. The more of you in contact with each other, the less heat you'll lose."

"I knew you were going to say that," Devon said. "Danziger's been waiting all night for his big chance."

"Hey!" Danziger said. "I was perfectly willing to be patient, Adair."

"Well, apparently hell's freezing over," she said. "Let's get cozy." They shifted awkwardly on the small space, and Danziger wrapped his arms around her. _Okay_, she thought, chagrined. _That's actually a lot better. He's like a furnace._

"Devon?" Julia said after a long moment. "Are you still with me?"

"Yeah, we're both still here," she said.

"Are you still shivering?" Julia asked.

Just the thought of it set off a hard round of it in Devon. "Oh-h, yeah," she said.

"That's good," Julia said. "Now talk to me."

"I need a topic," Devon said.

Julia looked at Bill, who shrugged. "Uh…favorite poem," she said.

"Favorite poem?" Devon repeated, and Danziger started to shake, trying not to laugh out loud. "Who has a favorite poem?"

"Well, um…" Julia said, and then stopped.

"Julia Heller, you just k-keep surprising me," Devon said. "I'm afraid a conversation about poetry is going to be rather brief, at least on my end."

Danziger was still shaking.

"Then music—what kind of music do you like?"

"Uh, neo-classical, I guess. Rothstein. And Breitman. And some of the old-school classical. I like Vivaldi," Devon said.

"Which part of the Four Seasons is your favorite?" Julia said.

"Right now, it sure isn't W-winter," Devon said feelingly. "I guess as a whole set, I like Autumn, but there's that one movement of Summer—"

"The storm," Julia said, nodding.

"Yes," Devon said, smiling. "And I like Tchaikovsky. Swan Lake—I remember this VR I saw of it—"

"Holy mother of god, Adair, if we're supposed to stay awake, you can not talk about ballet," Danziger growled.

Devon turned her head to look at him. "You know Swan Lake is ballet?"

"I have hidden depths," he said, affecting an even lower voice than normal. "And don't even think about mentioning opera."

"Here's the cavalry!" Rob said, coming up with Rick, each carrying one end of a long, complicated-looking piece of machinery. "One laser-drill, at your service."

"Jesus," Bill said, jamming his shovel into the dirt by the hole. "Why the hell didn't we think of that two hours ago?"

"It wouldn't have helped us two hours ago," Rob said. "We'd still have had to dig. But now we can get through this rock. Or we can if it isn't bedrock, anyway."

"Hang in there, Devon," Bill said. "We're coming."

The drill was effective, but it wasn't fast. It took them the better part of an hour to get a hole a foot across drilled through, but at least Rob's worries about how thick the rock was were unfounded.

Julia insisted that they make a small hole first, then expand it, rather than take the time to drill a big hole. "We can get them a heater and some blankets to keep them warm while you finish the work," she said.

Devon had never been more grateful for anything in her life than she was for the small heater Rick lowered down to them. They huddled over it, basking in the warmth with the reflective blankets draped over them.

It took another two hours to make the hole big enough to fit Danziger through, and even then, it was a tight squeeze for him. They brought Devon up first, just as the first hint of dawn was showing on the horizon. They pulled the loop of biocord from around her and Julia bundled her up in blankets and made her drink hot coffee while they sent the biocord back down for Danziger.

"Don't we have any hot chocolate?" Devon said, still shivering.

"Sorry," Julia said. "Coffee's the best I can do at this point."

"Easy!" Danziger said. "Ow!"

"Sorry, Danziger," Rick said, grabbing his arm and pulling to get him through the hole. He finally popped out, and lay on the rock, panting. Julia piled blankets on top of him and handed him a cup of coffee.

"Thanks," he said after a long swig. "Thanks, all of you. I don't think I'd have made it another hour down there—Adair was about to start singing showtunes to keep me awake."

Devon snorted. "Oh, stop—you were all ready to start in on 'Defying Gravity.' Who knew he'd be a fan of the classics?" she said, sparking a round of laughter.

Julia sent them both back to their tents with orders to sleep for at least four hours. The rest of them began lowering water barrels through the hole and bringing them back up. Julia tested the water, and was amazed—it was a little high in mineral content, but otherwise it was perfectly drinkable as it was. There was quite a celebration over that.

"A shower," Toshiko breathed when she heard the news. "I can finally have a shower."

"Get in line," Helen said.

"I'll take a cold one," Toshiko said. "I don't care, as long as it's wet."

When Devon came out of her tent at noon, it was to a freshly-scrubbed Eden Advance group with a renewed sense of energy. She was all ready to get on the road again, but Julia vetoed the idea.

"We have no idea how much water we're likely to find north of here," she said. "I want everyone to be as hydrated as possible before we get going. Besides, we had almost a dozen people who got next to no sleep last night, including you, Devon."

Devon sighed, knowing she was right, but she still hated waiting.

"It's just a day, Devon," Julia said, but she understood exactly how Devon felt.

* * *

"Um, guys?" Toshiko said from where she was keeping watch early the next morning. It took her a moment to get anyone's attention. "Anybody?"

"What is it, Tosh?" Helen said, turning to look at her.

Toshiko just pointed. Up on a ridge several hundred meters away, there was a figure silhouetted against the blue sky.

"What the—?" Helen said, and grabbed for a monocular.

"Is it one of those bouncy things Julia saw?" Toshiko asked tentatively.

"I don't think so," Helen said. "Danziger, take a look at this."

Danziger turned around, clearly still trying to wake up. "What?"

Helen handed him the monocular and pointed. He looked. "What is that thing? Julia, is that one of your creatures?"

Toshiko turned, and saw that Julia had come up next to Danziger.

Julia squinted at the figure, which still hadn't moved. She frowned. "No—the legs are too long," she said. She took the monocular from Danziger, and shook her head definitively. "No, it's—" She broke off, and handed the monocular back to Danziger, her eyes wide. "It just turned—do you see what I—?"

Danziger looked, and whistled softly.

"What is it?" Devon said, coming up.

"I think we just met our first native," Danziger said.

"What?" Devon said, frowning. "You mean a sentient life form? Are you sure?"

"You take a look," Danziger said. "It looks to me like this guy could have carved that path down into the canyon."

"That's a weapon, Devon, and a fairly complex one," Julia said uneasily.

Devon stared through the monoculars at the bizarre creature. It had six appendages, like every other creature they'd met so far, but in this case, there were two pairs of legs and what looked very much like arms that had hands at the end of them. With an opposable thumb. _Well, claw_, Devon thought. It looked sharp.

And Julia was right—the hands were holding some sort of device that looked sort of like an ancient crossbow. It had a wide bow held horizontally with a brace attached that curved around the torso of the creature. It looked like it might have some sort of pack slung across its back, but Devon couldn't tell for sure. She also couldn't tell if the furry gray-brown covering it had was its own fur or was clothing of some sort.

"Check out the face," Helen said. "It's just about adorable."

"Don't let the cute face fool you," Danziger said, though it was pretty funny hearing the word "adorable" coming from Helen Reeves. "That bow thing it's holding looks pretty lethal."

Devon had to admit Helen was right—the face was heart-shaped, with enormous eyes. And right at the moment, it seemed to be looking right at Devon, even though she knew that was impossible. Given the furriness of the face, she guessed that the coat was also its own fur.

"It certainly is unusual," Julia said, shaking her head. "It looks like this creature has made the transition to an upright posture in a similar way to humans, only with four remaining legs instead of two."

"It's like a cross between a praying mantis and a llama," Danziger said.

Devon looked up from the monoculars to give him a weird look.

"What?" he said. "Tru liked nature VRs when she was little."

Devon had no idea what a praying mantis looked like, but she'd seen holos of llamas, and she had to admit there was a similarity as she studied it through the monocular. Especially in the face. But this creature had a pair of oddly-shaped antennae or horns atop its head, and there were no ears that she could identify.

Julia took the monocular back from Devon and studied the creature. It hadn't moved since it first turned to look at them, but now its antennae-horns seemed to dip towards her as she watched. She looked away from the monoculars, feeling the beginnings of a headache. _Why does looking through these always do that to me?_ she thought. _Not always_, she reminded herself. _Just when you're tired_.

She started to look again, but all at once the creature turned and galloped off down the far side of the ridge and disappeared.

Devon stared after it for a moment, then looked over at Danziger. "It moves fast," she said.

"Yeah," he said. "I think we need to put more people on overnight watch."

"Keep your eyes open as we go, everyone," Devon said. "And stay close together."

* * *

That night, a small group of them sat around the fire, discussing the appearance of the native.

"What are we going to call it?" Toshiko said. Everyone turned to look at her. "Well, we can't keep calling them 'the bouncy thing' or 'the toothy thing,' can we? We might as well start naming them."

"I guess so," Helen said. "Since these seem to be intelligent natives, I guess the traditional thing would be to name them after the planet. But G-889ians doesn't really work for me."

"This is kind of a second Earth, right?" Toshiko said.

"We are not calling them Earthlings," Devon said acidly, still wrapped tightly in a blanket.

"How about Terrans?" Toshiko said. "That's what all the old VR science fiction stories called people from old Earth."

"But this is new Earth," Helen said. "And technically speaking, we're the Terrans."

"So…maybe…Terrians?" Toshiko said.

"Like those little yappy dogs they used to have? I am not calling something that can shoot me a Terrier," Danziger said.

"Not Terrier," Toshiko said, but the ripple of laughter drowned her out.

"Woof," Helen said, which sparked even more laughter.

_Oh, no_, Devon thought, groaning inwardly_. We just named the natives of this planet Terriers. If they weren't hostile before, they will be once they know what it means._

* * *

"What do you know about the native life forms on G-889?" Julia asked as Brendan materialized in front of her.

"Native life forms?"

Julia smiled thinly. "See, we're doing that question for a question thing again," she said. "And I asked first."

Brendan tilted his head, conceding the point. "There are a whole variety of creatures here," he said. "Why do you ask?"

"Well," Julia, "we've spotted a six-limbed creature."

"There are lots of those—the six-legs seems to be the standard form here," Brendan said impatiently, looking down as he paced in front of her.

Julia nodded. "But how many of those six-legged creatures carry weapons?"

Brendan looked up sharply. "Weapons?" he said.

Julia nodded again. "It looked like metal, too, from what I could see at a distance. That's some relatively advanced technology. Simple metallurgy developed nearly parallel with the transition to agriculture on old Earth, and this looked pretty complex."

"Has anyone in the group experienced headaches?" Brendan asked.

Julia tensed. "Headaches? Not to my knowledge. Why? Is there some sort of disease, Brendan? I need to know," Julia insisted.

"Just report in as normal. And next time have something useful," Brendan said and disappeared abruptly.

Julia pulled off the headset and looked uneasily back at the camp. _Headaches?_ she thought. She frowned. _There's nothing you can do till somebody shows up with one_, she told herself. _But if they do, Brendan's going to have to answer some questions._ She started back to the camp.

She didn't notice Valerie frowning at her as she approached the tents.

* * *

"Tosh," Valerie said, coming into the tent they were sharing with Phoebe and Helen. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

Toshiko looked up. "Sure," she said, but Valerie had already turned and walked out of the tent. Toshiko sighed, sharing a long-suffering look with Helen, climbed to her feet and followed her out. "What's up?"

"You said you knew more than you wanted to about Dr. Heller," Valerie said. "What did you mean?"

Toshiko frowned. "I thought you said you didn't want to know," she said.

Valerie waved the comment away. "I changed my mind. I figure, we're stuck here together for at least two years, so…"

"Okay," Toshiko said slowly. "What do you want to know?"

"I know she left Dr. Harrison's lab before…" She paused and took a breath. "Before the explosion. Do you know why?"

Toshiko's eyes widened. "You mean you didn't know she was fired?"

Valerie's eyes mirrored Toshiko's. "Fired? Harrison fired her? His fair-haired child? No," she said. "No, I didn't know that."

Toshiko frowned. "I shouldn't have said anything," she said.

"Oh, no, you don't get to stop there, Tosh," Valerie said. "Tell me everything."

"Valerie, if you didn't know, I don't think he wanted anyone to know, least of all Julia—"

"But why?" Valerie interrupted. "I thought they were practically joined at the hip."

Toshiko hesitated.

"Tosh, please," Valerie said quietly. "I think I deserve to know."

* * *

"Heller!" Alonzo called as she came up to his bunk. "Time for PT?"

Julia nodded, smiling at his enthusiasm. He lifted himself out of his bunk and hopped over to the ATV fender. She put on her diaglove and started working the leg. "How is your pain level?" she asked after about five minutes.

"It ranges from four to…" he winced as she forced the knee to bend farther, "…to seven."

"That's good," Julia said.

"Good?" he said, gritting his teeth. "How is that good?"

"Because it's lower than it was last night," she said patiently, flexing the leg again.

"Oh," Alonzo said, breathing out as she released his leg. "I guess that is good."

After another ten minutes, Julia called a halt. "The scans are looking good," she said. "You already have some significant progress in the femur, and the fibula is almost as far along. The tibia is the one I'm still worried about—those two fractures were difficult to set." She shook her head. "It's looking okay at this point, but I want to be careful with it."

Julia looked up from the scans when Alonzo didn't respond. He had a funny look on his face, and he looked deep into her eyes for a moment. "Listen, Heller, as long as you're here…I wanted to show you something," Alonzo said, and Julia was momentarily unnerved by his seriousness. She started to say something, but he put up his hand. "I want you to go into VR with me."

"Solace, I don't do VR," Julia said. "It's not—"

"Just do it for me, Heller," he said, putting on his gear. He started to flip the eyepiece into place, tapping commands into the headset, then noticed she wasn't putting hers on. "Please?" he said, and he actually batted his eyelashes at her.

Julia hesitated, and checked her headset with one hand to be sure her encryption chip wasn't in it. Alonzo smiled encouragingly, and she sighed and put on her headset. The space between the ATV and the Transrover was replaced by the sterile blue room that was the standard base for VR. Suddenly, the blue room was replaced by a large ballroom with crystal chandeliers. There was a bandstand on one end of the room, and a mid-20th century big band was playing some sort of slow swing tune. _Someone To Watch Over Me_, she thought, momentarily distracted by the thought. _My mother likes this_.

Alonzo materialized in front of her, but he looked…different. _Oh, come on_, Julia thought, _you can do better than that_, and then regretted it as instantly about a dozen words for how he looked flashed through her mind, before she settled on "devastating." He was in some sort of uniform, all in white, with epaulettes, and gold wings on the left shoulder. The white set off his dark hair and eyes and emphasized his olive skin.

And then it occurred to her to look at what he'd put her in, and she looked down. And immediately looked back up to glare at him. There was just enough of the dress to tell it was red, but not much more. She started to reach up to pull off the headset.

"Wait! Don't! I'm sorry," he said quickly. He actually had the good grace to look embarrassed, then tapped some commands into the VR, and the dress changed. "I shouldn't have done that," he said, "but you can't blame me for dreaming."

"Can't I?" Julia said coldly, then noticed the new dress. It was much more substantial, in a blue-gray color that Julia actually liked.

Julia started to look at it to see more of the detail, then heard Alonzo say almost reverently, "Wow, that's actually…better. Much better."

Julia looked up and found herself blushing under the scrutiny. "Solace, what's this all about?" she said, suddenly nervous.

He smiled, finally looking up at her again. "It's just that I feel like you've been thinking of me just as this," he said, gesturing down at his leg, which was odd, since in VR he was standing on it with no trouble. "I wanted to remind you that I'm more than that."

"And you needed all this," Julia said, waving at the ballroom and then taking in the stunning dress, "to do that? You could have just told me." _I __really__ wish you'd just told me_.

"I could have," he said, stepping closer. "But this," he looked up and down the dress admiringly, "is a bonus." He looked back up into her eyes, and her brain locked up again. Before she could say anything, he'd taken her hand, reached around her with his left hand at the small of her back and pulled her close.

_How does he __do__ that?_ she thought, and she had to remind herself to keep breathing. _It's like he reaches into my head and hits the emergency shut off._ After a moment, she realized they were dancing.

"Wait…Solace," she began, and he swept her into a dip.

"Can't you call me Alonzo?" he said smoothly, leaning over her.

_And there's the emergency re-start_, she thought, her heart pounding. "No, I…I can't do this," she said, and pulled off the headset, nearly dropping it in the process.

"Wait!" Alonzo said, pulling his headset off and reaching for her as the VR dissolved into the real world, but she pulled away. "Heller—Julia—!" he said, but she was already backing away and turning, almost crashing into the Transrover as she did.

Julia stumbled past the rover, thinking, _So what are you going to do when he can run after you?_


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: Y__es, I totally stole the prodromic dreams thing below from Connie Willis and her masterful first novel, Lincoln's Dreams. I steal a lot of my stuff, but at least I'm a kleptomaniac with taste. Well, most of the time, anyway. _

_And finally, everybody should have a favorite poem. Go find one. I recommend Wislawa Szymborska, if you're at a loss for where to start. Yes, Elizabeth Siddal really did write a poem called 'Worn Out.' Look it up on the interwebs. (My poetry prof would be so proud right now.) Interestingly, Ms. Siddal was also the subject of my favorite painting, Beata Beatrix. Now you know all about me. :-)_

* * *

Earth Two

Chapter 6

"Mom! MOM!" Uly yelled.

Devon woke up with a jolt. "Uly?" she said, scrambling out of her sleeping bag. "What is it?" She fumbled to turn on the lantern.

"They're coming!" Uly said. He was sitting bolt upright, his eyes wide, and breathing hard.

"Who is?" Yale said, coming over from his cot.

Uly looked at him, then frowned. "I—I don't know," he said, sounding confused.

"It's okay, tiger, it was just a nightmare," Devon said, stroking his hair.

"No," Uly said insistently. "I mean—it was, but…" He trailed off uncertainly. "You're not supposed to still…feel stuff from a nightmare after you wake up, are you?"

"Sometimes you do, if it was a really bad one," Devon said. "Do you—"

Danziger poked his head in the tent. "Is everything okay?" he asked. His hair was even wilder than normal.

Devon nodded. "Sorry, just a nightmare," she said.

Danziger smiled at Uly. "No problem. Everybody gets 'em sometimes."

"Is Uly all right?" Devon heard Julia ask.

Danziger pulled his head out of the tent. "It's okay, Uly just had a bad dream," he said.

"Sorry, Mom," Uly said. "I didn't mean to wake everybody up. It was just…scary."

"Don't worry about it," Devon said. "Everybody understands. Do you want to talk about it?"

Uly frowned. "I don't know," he said. "It was—" He paused, clearly groping for words. "I don't know how to say it…there were these things, but I couldn't see them. I could just…feel them. They were mad—really, really mad. They don't want us here." He rubbed his forehead. "My head hurts."

"Why don't you try to go back to sleep?" Yale said. "Perhaps the headache will pass if you sleep." Uly nodded and lay back down.

"Do you want the light on?" Devon asked.

"No, I'm okay," he said, though he sounded a little uncertain.

"Tell you what," Devon said. "I'm kind of awake right now. How about I read a little till you get to sleep?"

Uly smiled at her wanly, clearly recognizing what she was trying to do for him. "Thanks, Mom."

"It's what I'm here for," she said, grinning at him.

* * *

"Did you have any more dreams, Uly?" Yale asked, sitting in the transrover cab with him the next day.

Uly shook his head. "At least, not like that one," he said.

"But you have had others?" Yale asked, curious.

"They're weird—they're not like regular dreams." Uly frowned. "You know how when you wake up, you can remember bits and pieces, and it's like a story?"

Yale nodded. "It is the brain attempting to make sense of random images," he said.

"These aren't like that—it's all one big…thing," he said. "The first one was all this big glob of things that were curious. But not in a scary way, you know? That's all it was. But last night, there was a glob of things that were mad—really mad."

"Do you find these dreams disturbing?" Yale asked.

Uly shook his head. "At least not the first one—the one last night was bad." He stopped, then looked up at Yale. "When we were getting ready to go into coldsleep, Julia said that sometimes dreams have something to do with what's going on in your body."

Yale nodded. "There is a term for such dreams—prodromic dreams. They aren't fully understood, but—"

"Do these dreams mean I'm going to get sick again?" Uly interrupted.

Yale smiled. "I do not believe so," he said. "Your O2 sats have been very consistent the last few days, and Julia seems very pleased. No, I think your dreams are just…dreams."

Uly didn't look satisfied with that explanation.

* * *

"Can I assume from the fact that Julia asked me to do physical therapy with you that last night didn't go so well?" Melanie said that evening, coming up to Alonzo where he was sitting in the ATV.

"She didn't say anything?" Alonzo said, surprised.

Melanie looked at him like he was an idiot. "Julia doesn't say anything ever," she said. "What makes you think she'd tell me about that? So what happened?"

"Well, it started great, once I got past the dress screwup—yes, I know, I know, you were right." He paused, remembering how the blue-gray of the dress had made Julia's eyes almost glow. "Damn, you were right. But then—"

"She panicked, didn't she?" Melanie said. He nodded, looking glum. "Give it a few days," she said, "and then we'll try something else. Just promise me you'll dial it back a notch. The full-thrusters approach is not going to work with her, okay?" _Like I told you about a dozen times_, Melanie thought, annoyed.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that out," he said ruefully.

Melanie walked away, shaking her head. _I hope you haven't screwed this up too badly, you moron_, she thought. _I hope she's not so scared she won't give you another chance._

* * *

Julia studied her tablet. The database Valerie had set up for the medical records was impressively easy to use. It allowed her to import specific sets of information from the data Yale and Toshiko had given her, and the hand-entry was just as easy. _I should thank her_, she thought, but given how uncomfortable the exchange over the database had been, she didn't really want to repeat the experience.

_I wish I knew what I'd done_, she thought, though it wouldn't have surprised her if the whole thing was because of her family background. _It certainly wouldn't be the first time._

"Excuse me, Dr. Heller?" Yale said, and he poked his head into the tent. "Am I disturbing you?"

"No, of course not, Yale," Julia said, smiling at him. "Please, come in. I wanted to thank you for the data you downloaded into my tablet about the ship's crew. It has been very useful."

Yale nodded, tilting his head to one side. "I am pleased to have been of service," he said. "I was wondering if you could answer a question for me."

"Absolutely," Julia said, wondering what sort of question he didn't already have the answer to.

"Uly had a nightmare last night, and it was very disturbing for him," Yale said.

_That's an understatement_, Julia thought, remembering how desperate his calls for his mother had been. "Is he all right? Do you need me to come take a look at him?"

Yale shook his head. "He seems perfectly fine," he said. "But something he said struck me, and I thought perhaps you might be able to reassure him. And me."

"What did he say?"

"He mentioned that before you put him into coldsleep, you had spoken of the possibility of dreaming in cryostasis," Yale said. "And he said you mentioned prodromic dreams."

"I know I talked about dreams," Julia said, smiling, "but I'm fairly certain I didn't use the term 'prodromic.'"

"But you are familiar with the phenomenon?" Yale persisted.

"Well, to a certain extent—" Julia began.

"You see, Uly seems concerned that his dream last night may portend some sort of relapse for him," Yale said.

"Oh," Julia said. "Yes, I see the problem. But Yale, I just don't know enough about them to be able to say that—I doubt if anyone does. It's a very rare phenomenon. The case I'm most familiar with is just a theoretical explanation for a series of repetitive dreams."

Yale looked interested. "What was the case?" he asked.

"Abraham Lincoln," she said dubiously. "Apparently he had dreams of himself in the White House, coming down the stairs to find his own casket. The theory goes that he may have suffered from Marfan's Syndrome, which can sometimes cause myxomatic deterioration of the aortic valve, and that if he hadn't been assassinated, he would have died from that condition. But from what I know, the consensus is that he didn't have Marfan's at all, so I don't think the prodromic dream idea holds any water."

Yale nodded. "I see," he said, and for once, Julia was glad to find someone she could use obscure multisyllabic terms with and not get a blank look.

"But I wouldn't say anything concrete has ever been proven one way or the other," she went on. "As far as I know, the few studies that were done were inconclusive about whether particular dreams could be tied to any kind of undiagnosed illness. And as far as Lincoln is concerned, he'd received dozens of serious death threats. I'd be more worried about his health if he hadn't been dreaming of his own death."

"My own files were somewhat limited on the subject," Yale said, "which should have led me to the obvious conclusion that the phenomenon was unfounded in fact. Thank you for confirming that."

Julia nodded. "If you like, I could come talk to Uly about it," she said.

Yale shook his head. "I don't believe that will be necessary. But if he has further dreams of the sort, I may ask your assistance. Thank you, Doctor," he said, and made his way out of the tent before she could ask him to call her Julia.

* * *

"Come on, Tru, it's not that bad," Danziger said.

Tru looked at him as only an eleven-year-old deeply annoyed by her father could. "It is absolutely that bad," she said. "Yale is unbelievably boring, and Uly's such a little kid!"

"Ah," Danziger said, "and you're—"

"Don't say it," Tru snapped. "I'm eleven—that's way different than eight. And technically speaking, I'm thirty-three."

"Yeah, and that makes Uly thirty, so you two could get legally married," Danziger said, and waited for the explosion.

Tru looked at him coldly. "Very funny. You should totally do that on one of those cheesy variety VRs. They'd love you."

Danziger grinned. "Thanks, sweetheart," he said. "Now go find Yale and Uly."

Tru sighed dramatically, then nodded and walked away. _That was way too easy,_ Danziger thought, his eyes narrowing as he watched her go. He looked around. "Hey, Bess!" he called. She turned, and he ran up to her. "Listen, could you maybe keep an eye on Tru? I sent her to do math lessons with Yale, but—"

Bess grinned. "Yeah, I've heard about Tru and math. Don't worry—I know all the tricks for avoiding class. I'll take care of it." She winked and trotted off after Tru.

"Danziger!" Devon called. She came up with Helen and Bill. "Listen, we've been talking about our food supplies," she began.

"Yeah, I was wondering when the subject would come up," Danziger said. "I can't be the only one getting tired of e-rations."

"Yeah, well, give it another week, and those'll start to look good," Bill said grimly. "We really need to start living off the land. The hydroponics should be producing some soon, but that's hardly enough to feed all of us. The only other option right now is the synthofu from the emergency synthesizer. And if you think the e-rations are bad…" He trailed off, looking disgusted.

"I've been collecting some plant samples," Helen said, "and Julia's been testing them for viability as food sources, but it's slow going. I was thinking that maybe a few of us could go out hunting for some of Julia's bouncy things, and while we're out there, I could gather other possible plants."

Danziger nodded. "We've got the six mag-pro rifles. If we send out two teams of two, each with one rifle and one hand gun, that'll still leave us four rifles and handguns for the main group."

"Three rifles," Devon said. "You're taking a rifle with you when you scout."

Danziger shrugged. "Fine by me. I'd been planning to make shorter trips from here on out," he lied, knowing Devon needed to hear it. "I'm not big on heroics, so I'd just as soon have plenty of backup if something does happen."

"Good," Devon said. "We'll start tomorrow. Helen, you and Bill will be one of our teams, and let's get Rob and Rick to be the other. One of you can take the north side of our path, the other the south. I want all of you on gear at all times, understood?" Helen nodded, and Danziger surreptitiously rolled his eyes.

* * *

Morgan stepped out of his tent, and nearly ran into Yale as he walked by.

"I beg your pardon," Yale said. "I was not watching where I was going."

"Yeah?" Morgan said, stepping backwards nearly into his tent again. "Well, don't…don't let it happen again."

"Morgan Martin!" Bess said from inside the tent. "How rude!"

"It is quite all right," Yale said and walked on towards Devon's tent.

"What was that?" Bess said, coming out of the tent. "Honestly, Morgan, I've never heard you be so awful to someone!"

"He's not someone, Bess!" Morgan said. "He's a cyborg!"

"Cyborgs are still people, Morgan," Bess said, crossing her arms and looking sternly at him.

"Bess, you remember what I went through when I was working on that project!" Morgan said pleadingly. "Those things are dangerous!"

"I have had no reason to worry about Yale," Bess said reasonably. "And I've been around him a lot lately, keeping an eye on Tru."

Morgan sighed. "Bess, they always look just fine until they grab a mag-pro and start mowing people down."

"Well, if you're so worried about that, maybe you ought to work harder at being nice to him. You don't want to be at the top of his hit list when he goes berserk, do you?" Bess said, smiling sweetly.

"That isn't funny, Bess," Morgan said, but he looked nervous.

* * *

Julia pulled her tablet out of her pack and set it on the table, then stared at it_. I shouldn't be making Melanie do this_, she thought._ Solace's treatment is my responsibility. I just have to tell him I'm not interested in him. It's that simple._

She hesitated, then made herself go out of the tent and start over towards Alonzo's bunk. As she walked, she heard someone whistling. She turned to see Bill ducking into his tent, and the whistling stopped. But there had been no mistaking it—he'd been whistling Someone To Watch Over Me.

She froze. _That bastard_, she thought. _That insufferable __bastard_. She stalked over to Solace's bunk. Melanie was there, talking to him. "You son of a bitch," she said, stopping a few feet from them.

"What?" Alonzo said, frowning in confusion.

"That's all I am to you, some sort of joke?" Julia said harshly. "Get the ice queen into VR, make your move and then, what, I fall all over you? Only I didn't, so to soothe your pride, you tell everyone about it? Or was that the plan all along, to laugh it up afterwards?"

"Wait, no, I didn't—" Alonzo started to say.

"Julia, no, it wasn't like—" Melanie said at the same time.

"So you were in on it?" Julia said, turning to look at Melanie. "God, I should have known," Julia said, shaking her head. "You're just like all the—" She stopped, breathing hard, then spun on her heel and walked away.

"Julia," Melanie said, starting after her, but Alonzo lost his balance when she let go, and she had to turn to grab him to keep him from falling over. "Julia, wait!"

"Go after her!" Alonzo said, grabbing onto the ATV roll bar. "I'm fine!" Melanie hesitated, but Alonzo shoved her hard. "Go!"

Melanie headed after Julia, but she had disappeared. Melanie ran for the med tent. "Julia?" she said, poking her head inside, but she wasn't there, either. "Damn it," Melanie said under her breath. _Where did she go?_ Melanie tapped her gear. "Julia," she said. "Please answer me."

* * *

Julia stalked through the space between the mess tent and Bill's tent. She could hear Bill whistling again and felt a surge of anger. _God, how could I have been so stupid, to think he was any different?_

She headed for the little hollow she'd noticed earlier. It was far enough from the camp to be out of earshot, and the hollow was deep enough she wouldn't be seen if she knelt down. She dropped into it and sat down.

"Julia, please answer me," Melanie's voice came over the gear, and Julia shut it off with a savage punch at the button.

_Go to hell_, she thought.

* * *

Melanie looked everywhere in the camp she could think of, but apparently even in a tiny camp like this there were still places to hide. And Julia had shut off her gear, so she couldn't be tracked down that way.

_Shit_, Melanie thought. _Way to go, Wilson. Not only did your brilliant plan fail, it backfired in the most spectacular way._ She sighed and started back to Alonzo. As she headed past Bill's tent, she heard him whistling, and she knew instantly what had gone wrong.

"Did you find her?" Alonzo said when she came up.

Melanie shook her head. "I think we'd better just let her cool off for a while," she said. "I don't think she'd listen to either of us right now. I really messed this up, 'Zo. I was humming the song earlier, and Bill heard me and started singing along, and just now I heard him whistling it. I'm betting she heard it, too, and—"

"And assumed that it was all a setup," Alonzo said, and put his hand over his face. "Oh, no…"

"I'm so sorry," Melanie said.

"Don't, Mel, it's not your fault," Alonzo said. "You were right—I shouldn't have pushed it. The VR thing was too much, too fast. God, I'm such an idiot!"

* * *

Julia sat in the hollow for a long time, stewing over Alonzo and Melanie. _I'm such an idiot_, she thought bitterly. _I knew better than to get close to anyone here. I knew better, and I did it anyway. Any one of them could be—_ She broke off that thought, knowing it just led to more pointless and painful speculation. _Just let it go_, she thought. _You have more important issues to deal with._ She waited a few more minutes to be sure Melanie had stopped trying to find her on gear, and went into VR.

"Brendan?" she said quietly, and he appeared in front of her.

"You know, it would be nice if you could stick to some sort of schedule," he said.

"I'm so sorry," Julia said, fighting to keep her anger in check, "but it's not as though I can say 'Hey, everybody, I'm going to be busy from seven to eight every night reporting to the Council, so try to keep that time slot injury-free.'"

"I thought you might want to have a moment with your mother," Brendan said meaningfully.

Julia bit back the reply she wanted to make. _I get the message, you bastard._ "I would. Thank you."

Miriam Heller flickered into existence in the VR room. "I'll leave you two to talk for a moment," Brendan said, and disappeared.

"Hello, Mother," Julia said.

"Julia," Miriam said evenly. "Are you well?"

Julia nodded. "And you?"

Miriam smiled faintly. "As well as can be expected."

Julia bit her lip, then decided she might not have another chance. "I wanted to thank you," she said, with a myriad of emotions running through her. "For…your message. When you said goodbye."

Miriam's eyes softened, a look Julia couldn't remember seeing since she'd been small. "I meant every word," she said. She heard something outside of VR and frowned. She looked back at Julia, and for an instant there was a look of pride in her eyes. "Just keep moving," Miriam said in a rush, with a faint emphasis on the last two words. "Keep up the good work, Julia," but before she even finished, she was dissolving out of VR, and Brendan replaced her.

_What was that?_ Julia thought, her heart pounding.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Heller," Brendan said, looking at her with slightly narrowed eyes, "your mother was needed elsewhere. What do you have to report?"

_They know_, she thought. _I said something wrong, something to tip him off. Or there's something I __should__ have said that I didn't._ "I…I have to go. Something's going on," Julia said, and ripped off the headset before Brendan could protest. _What did I say?_ she thought, running one hand through her hair. _Clearly he knows, or at least suspects something_._ What gave me away? Or, oh, God, are they really that close?_

"Stop it," she whispered out loud. _They can't be close—that's what she meant. We're safe if we keep moving._

But her brain wouldn't stop. _I messed it all up_, she thought. _And now she's—_ She balled her hands into fists and pushed them against her eyes. _Stop it_, she told herself. _Stop it_.

* * *

Melanie had no idea whether Julia came back to the tent that night. Melanie had fallen asleep at some point very late and woke up late in the morning. The rest of the group was already starting to pack up.

"Rough night, Mel?" Helen said, walking past with a rolled up tent.

Melanie ran her hand through her dark hair. "Have you seen Julia?"

Helen shook her head. "But she'll have to be back soon—we have to pack up your tent."

"I saw her," Valerie said. "She was wandering off away from camp again. I should say something to Devon about it—she's breaking her own rules!"

"Don't," Melanie said. "It's my fault. We had an argument, and she needed some space, is all."

"This argument wouldn't have anything to do with Solace, would it?" Valerie said, frowning.

"Leave it alone, Valerie," Melanie said warningly.

"Come on, Melanie. Those sleepjumper pilots are all the same. You know he'll just break her heart," Valerie said.

"And you care about that?" Melanie said, frowning in confusion.

Valerie frowned, looking almost as confused. "I just-look, we made those rules about not leaving the camp alone so people wouldn't get into trouble. I don't think 'space' is a valid excuse." She stomped off.

"Don't worry about it, Mel," Helen said. "She'll turn up soon."

But she still hadn't shown up by the time Melanie had most of their stuff packed up. Alonzo rolled up in the ATV. "Have you seen her?"

Melanie shook her head, looking around, then spotted Julia coming out of the mess tent. Alonzo looked like he was about to go to her. "Don't, Alonzo," she said. "Let me talk to her first."

Alonzo frowned, but nodded.

Melanie started over to her, but she turned and headed for their tent. Melanie followed, wondering what she was going to say. "Julia?" she said tentatively from the tent flap. "Can I come in?"

Julia didn't look up from where she was folding up her cot. "Of course," she said quietly, not turning to look at her.

"Julia, please, let me explain," Melanie said.

"Explain what?" Julia said, frowning, then she looked like she realized what Melanie was talking about. "Oh. That."

Melanie looked ashamed. "It's not what you think," she said.

"It doesn't matter," Julia said.

"It wasn't a joke, Julia, I swear," Melanie said. "He really wants—"

"I don't care," Julia said tiredly. "I don't care what either one of you wants. What I want is for you both to leave me the hell alone."

* * *

"I swear to god, Bill, if you keep whistling, I'm going to cut off your lips," Helen growled.

Bill looked embarrassed. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't even realize I was doing it."

"Well, you need to realize it from now on—you're scaring off all the game," Helen said, pushing her way past a thorny bush. "And for the record, I could go a lifetime without hearing that tune again."

"It's not my fault—Melanie was the one singing it. It just got stuck in my head," Bill protested.

"Do you know what Julia was yelling at Alonzo about?" Helen said. "Melanie seemed to be in the middle of it."

Bill shook his head. "She sure looked mad, though. And after the way she went for Martin that time, I sure wouldn't want her pissed off at me."

"No kidding," Helen said. "Well, whatever it was, I hope they get it out of their systems and get on with it."

"On with what?"

Helen rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, don't tell me you haven't noticed!"

"Noticed what?" Bill said, looking completely baffled.

Helen sighed. "This explains so much," she said to herself. "Bill, you're so clueless, it's almost cute."

Bill frowned. "I don't get it," he said.

"Shh!" Helen whispered, pointing. There was one of Julia's bouncy animals—_we have to come up with a name for these things_, she thought—in the middle of a clearing just ahead of them. It had looked up alertly just as she saw it. She raised her mag-pro and aimed.

* * *

They'd entered rolling hills covered with tall grass late in the morning, and it was like walking in a yellow-green sea. Devon found the grass fascinating, the way it moved in the breeze, the feeling of the tasseled seed pods at the tip running under her hands as she walked. She wondered if there had been fields like this on old Earth.

She heard a squeal of delight off to the side of the Eden Project caravan, and turned to see Danziger speeding along with Uly by his side. Uly was doing well enough Julia had agreed to allow him to ride in the rail for a while. It made Devon nervous, but he was clearly having the time of his life, and she couldn't stand to take that away from him.

His O2 sats had been at 98 for over a week, and his energy level was worlds better than it had been before they arrived. _Almost too much_, Devon thought, thinking about how much trouble she'd had getting him to sit still for breakfast. She smiled to herself. _What a wonderful problem to have!_ And it looked like it was going to be an ongoing problem. Julia was becoming convinced that his improvement wasn't just a temporary thing—she'd even told Devon she thought he could go without his oxygen concentrator the next day to see how he'd do, much to Uly's joy.

Devon glanced over at the doctor. She seemed lost in thought, which she'd been doing a lot lately. Something had happened between her and Alonzo. Devon had heard some of the rumors, but had tried not to pay too much attention. _Lord knows, we all need our privacy_, Devon thought, though in a group this size that was almost impossible. But it concerned Devon that Julia also seemed angry with Melanie. _She needs somebody in this group she can talk to about it_, Devon thought. _Maybe this would be a good time to get to know our doctor a little better. _She angled over to walk beside Julia.

"He's having a lot of fun," Devon said, nodding her head towards the rail.

Julia smiled. "It's good to see that," she said. "He deserves the chance to be a little boy for a change."

"Thank you," Devon said.

Julia shook her head. "I've told you, Devon, it's nothing I've done. And as near as I can tell, the improvement started somewhere around the time we started drinking the distilled water. Which is very interesting."

"Interesting isn't the word I'd use," Devon said. "Suspicious, maybe. Do you think it's something in the station water?"

Julia sighed in frustration. "Dr. Harrison and I had done a lot of work on that possibility," she said, "but we couldn't come up with a single smoking gun. I suppose it's possible it's a combination of factors interacting, but…" She trailed off, clearly thinking hard.

"Well, when we get to New Pacifica, we can at least send the information back to the stations," Devon said. "Maybe they'll be able to do more with it."

Julia looked troubled. "We're already forty-four years too late for a lot of the children back on the stations," she said.

Devon winced, knowing she was absolutely right. _Whatever we find out here, it's unlikely to be of much use to anyone back there._ "Well, at least we know the children on the colony ship will be fine once they get here," she said, and was surprised when Julia looked even more troubled.

_I wonder what that's about_, Devon thought, then decided whatever it was, she needed to distract Julia from dwelling on it. "So, favorite poem," Devon said after a long silence.

"What?" Julia said, startled, and for a moment, she looked almost terrified.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Devon said gently. "You told me you had a favorite poem. When I was stuck in that hole with Danziger. I've been curious ever since."

"Oh," Julia said, frowning as she tried to recover. "It's…um…kind of obscure."

"I like obscure," Devon said insistently. "Just ask Yale."

Julia looked faintly embarrassed.

"Come on, how bad can it be? Wait—don't tell me it's a nasty limerick!" She grinned.

Julia smiled faintly. "No," she said. "Pretty far from it." She hesitated, then went on. "It's called 'Worn Out.' By Elizabeth Siddal."

Devon frowned. "It sounds sad."

"She had reason to be—a stillborn child, post-partum depression, opiate addiction, a lover who was more than a bit self-centered," Julia said.

Devon looked concerned. "This is the woman who wrote your favorite poem?"

Julia smiled a little. "I guess it does say something about me, doesn't it?"

"Not necessarily," Devon said. "I like Gaetano Piazza's sculptures, and he was a complete lunatic. I'd like to think that liking his work doesn't mean I'll throw myself out an airlock, too. How did you find this poem?"

Julia shrugged. "I got tired of studying. I guess I burned out on medicine for a while, and I spent a lot of time reading anything different. Twentieth-century mysteries, history, nineteenth century poetry. I went through an Emily Dickinson phase, and then stumbled across Elizabeth Siddal in a collection of women poets from that era."

"So, let's hear it," Devon said, picturing Julia spending far too much time by herself.

Julia looked uncomfortable. "I…don't have it memorized," she said, and Devon knew that was a lie. Julia's near-perfect memory had become a running joke in the camp, much to her discomfort. Devon knew she didn't like being reminded of her genetic enhancements. _But why doesn't she want to tell me the poem?_ Devon thought. She couldn't think of anything else to prolong the conversation, and Julia certainly didn't seem inclined to help, so Devon let it go.

That night, though, she had Yale look up the poem for her after Uly went to sleep. She read it, and knew exactly why Julia hadn't wanted to tell her. It hit awfully close to home—Julia was certainly a "startled thing." Devon wondered how much of the poem fit her beyond that. _It's the sort of poem that would appeal to someone who'd been wounded deeply by love._ Devon smiled a little at that thought—it sounded so melodramatic—but somehow it seemed to fit Julia Heller.

She looked up some more of Elizabeth Siddal's work, and worried more after reading 'Love and Hate.'

_I need to have a talk with Alonzo_, Devon thought. _These might help him understand her a little. He needs to be careful with her, or she'll fly away from him._

* * *

"She didn't say a word to me all day," Melanie said to Alonzo. She looked miserable. "Not even when we were setting up the tent."

"Maybe I should try talking to her," he said.

"How are you going to do that? Hell, she keeps finding ways to avoid me, and I can chase her." Melanie regretted saying it the moment the words left her mouth. "I'm sorry, 'Zo. That was—"

"It's time for your PT, Solace," Julia said, coming up behind Melanie. Melanie whirled. "I've got this, Melanie."

"Um…sure," Melanie said, glancing back uncertainly at Alonzo. He nodded at her, and she stepped around Julia, who was already putting on her diaglove.

Alonzo waited, hoping she might break the silence, but she just came over and started scanning his leg. "Up on the fender," she said finally, and he lifted himself out of the ATV and maneuvered over to the fender with her help. "Okay, flex," she said, and he obediently bent his knee. She pressed at the ankle, forcing the knee to bend farther.

"Julia," Alonzo said, wincing. "We need to talk."

"No," Julia said. "You need to talk. I just need you to shut up and do your PT." She kept scanning the knee as he flexed over and over for the next several minutes. "Okay, take a break," she said when Alonzo started sweating.

He let out a sigh of relief. "Is this how it's going to be, then?" he said.

She looked at him like he was a lab specimen. A boring one. "This is my job, Solace."

_Ouch_, he thought. "Look, it's fine if you want to be mad at me," he said. "I deserve it—I screwed up. But don't take it out on Melanie. She only helped because I asked her—hell, the blue dress was her idea, and I should have taken all of her advice—" He stopped, realizing what he'd been about to say, then decided to plunge ahead. "She didn't think it was a good idea. She told me I should wait, that you were too scared—"

"Scared," Julia said evenly. "Really."

"Oh, god, I'm just making this worse," Alonzo said, grimacing. "I swear it wasn't a joke—neither of us told anyone else about it. I wanted it to be something special. I'm sorry. I really am."

"Apology accepted," she said with no inflection. "Now can we move on?"

"Julia," he said, reaching out to her. "Please—"

"Stop calling me that!" she said harshly, pulling out of his reach. She looked away, biting her lip, then let out a breath and turned back to him. "We need to finish. Flex," she said, her tone back to the cool, even sound it had moments earlier, stepping back up to him and scanning the knee. "You're making good progress. The bone seems to be knitting well. We can try putting some weight on it in a day or two." She didn't say another word through the whole thing, and he didn't try to force her.

_But at least I know I might have a chance to keep talking to her_, he thought, wincing. _It almost makes the pain worth it. Almost._

* * *

"This thing…had better be edible," Bill said, shifting the creature on his back.

"I offered to carry it," Helen said patiently. "I still can if you're getting tired."

"No," Bill said, and it came out almost as a grunt. "I'm…fine."

"If it's any consolation, we're only about fifty meters from the camp," Helen said, glad that he was behind her and couldn't see her grinning._ He's trying so hard_, she thought, then caught sight of something moving in the brush ahead of her. She raised her mag-pro. "Hold up," she whispered to Bill. "I just saw something."

* * *

Julia sat at her lab table staring blindly at her tablet. She'd finished with Alonzo's PT about an hour earlier, and she'd been trying to get some analysis done on some of the plant samples Helen had found, but her head was aching abominably, and it was hard to concentrate.

_Thank god Melanie had the good sense to leave me alone_, she thought. _It's hard enough to think without her apologizing every thirty seconds._

_And I have more than enough distractions already._ She kept seeing her mother's look right before she left VR. _If only the most complicated thing I had to deal with was Alonzo_. She felt another surge of anger, but she pushed it aside.

"Julia?" Devon said, and she came into the tent with Uly behind her. "Can you give Uly something for a headache?"

"You, too?" Julia said, turning to smile at Uly. "It might be the weather changing—I read that the pressure difference sometimes causes head—" She frowned. "Headaches," she finished absently.

"What?" Devon said.

Julia looked startled. "Oh, sorry," she said. "It's nothing, I just…had a stray thought."

"About headaches?"

"Yes. No. Sort of," Julia said vaguely. "Here, Uly." She gave him a dose of ketoxidine, then reloaded and gave herself one as well. "Come back and see me if that doesn't help."

"Thanks, Julia," he said. Devon started to leave the tent, and Uly paused at the door. "Are you mad about something?" he asked Julia.

"Mad?" Julia said, surprised. _Don't tell me I'm that obvious_, she thought, but Devon seemed as surprised by his question as she was. "No, I'm not mad. Why?"

"I don't know," Uly said. "I just—I keep thinking…" He trailed off, frowning. "I don't know."

"Come on, tiger. I think you're just tired," Devon said. "It's been a long day." She took Uly out, though he was protesting that he wasn't tired.

_She isn't kidding about the long day_, Julia thought. The grasslands had given way to rocky hills by midday. They'd climbed up and over the foothills north of the canyon all day, and it had been rough going. The bright side had been that they'd run across several streams, so they'd been able to fully replenish their water supplies. But the rail had tipped over at one point, and Phoebe Callahan ended up with a nasty bruise on her thigh. Between that and not getting a chance to ride in the Transrover at all for the first time, Julia was about done in. _Not to mention this stupid headache and the whole thing with Alonzo that's causing it_, she thought, wishing the ketoxidine would kick in.

_Headaches_, she thought again. _What did Brendan mean when he asked about headaches?_ She picked up her gear, trying to think how to approach this conversation. _Is there anything I can do to undo what I've already done_? She shook her head and put the gear down again. _First, you need to get the headache under control. You can't think clearly like this. And if ever there was a time you needed to think clearly, this is it._

* * *

Helen had stopped cold, and Bill nearly ran into her back before he realized she'd stopped.

"What is it?" Bill whispered.

"I don't know yet," Helen said very quietly. "Put down the animal."

Bill slid the dead creature off his back and sighed in relief. "Why? Is there somet—"

Just then, a large creature ran across an open space about thirty meters ahead of them. Helen held her breath, ready to fire if it saw them, but it continued off into the brush.

"Jesus!" Bill breathed. "Was that a Terrier? It had to be close to two meters high!"

"Shh!" Helen whispered. "There may be—"

Another ran across the space, followed by several more. Helen waited, motionless, hoping Bill had the good sense to emulate her. It was close enough to sunset they could easily be missed in the dim light. She waited several seconds after the last one went through, then hit her gear. "Eden Advance," she said quietly, "this is Helen. We have multiple Terriers approaching the camp. I repeat—multiple Terriers, all of them armed. Bill and I will be coming in from the southwest. Do you copy?"

"Did you say Terriers?" Melanie's voice came over the gear, and her voice rose sharply on the last word.

"Yes, damn it! Now tell everybody else! And tell them we'll be coming in soon! And don't shoot us!" Helen snapped. "Come on, Bill," she said, grabbing his arm and pulling him forward. "I have a feeling they're going to need our guns in a minute."

"Rob!" Melanie called over the gear, and she sounded frightened. "Are you okay? Where are you?"

"We're just coming into the camp now," Rob said. "What's the matter?"

"Thank god," Melanie said. "There are Terriers coming—Helen said they're armed."

Rick exchanged a glance with Rob. "Come on," Rick said, "let's make sure we have the perimeter covered."

* * *

"Come on, Uly," Devon said, pulling at her son.

"Mom, my head is better," he protested. "Let me go watch Mr. Danziger work on the rail."

Devon sighed. "Okay, but only for ten minutes," she said. "Then I want you back in our tent and ready to sleep. Got it?"

"Got it!" he said, and trotted off towards the Transrover. _It is amazing how much better he's doing_, Devon thought. She looked up at the two moons overhead and smiled. _No matter what happens here_, she thought, _it was worth coming_.

"Everybody, listen up!" Melanie's voice came over the gear. "I just—"

"Holy—!" someone yelled off to Devon's right. "There's something coming!" Even as she heard that, Devon heard another sound behind it—a thundering sound she couldn't identify. Suddenly she saw something large moving toward her through the tents.

"Everybody take cover!" Melanie yelled over the gear.

It was a Terrier. _They're a lot bigger than I thought_, Devon had time to think, and then she realized it was aiming an arrow right at her. She dove to the ground and heard the arrow whiz overhead. She rolled over to take cover by one of the tents and turned to look back towards the Transrover. "Uly!" she yelled.

* * *

"Tru!" Danziger yelled. "Tru!" A Terrier galloped by and Danziger dove to the ground as an arrow flew by him. "Tru, damn it, tell me where you are before I get killed looking for you!"

"I'm here," she said, waving at him from underneath the rail.

"Come on!" he said, grabbing her hands and dragging her out. "Keep your head down." He half-carried her over to the transrover and flung open the cab. "Get in there, and don't come out for anything, got it!"

Another Terrier galloped by. "Dad, look out!" Tru yelled, and he slammed the door of the cab shut and hit the dirt. He looked up a moment later, and tried to figure out what the hell he could do. He saw Helen and Bill run by with two of the mag-pros, and he saw Alonzo firing another one from the ATV.

_There's at least one more in the case in the back of the rover_, he thought. _But I'm gonna be mighty exposed trying to get to it._

"Dad!" he heard Tru yell.

"Stay put!" he bellowed.

"No, Dad, I have an idea!" she shouted, trying to make herself heard through the thick glass of the rover's cab.

* * *

Julia hit the ground in her tent as an arrow sliced through the wall of it and thudded into the dirt two feet away from her. _I should have known the headache would be the high point of my day_, she thought. "Tru!" she heard Danziger yell. Julia crawled to the flap and poked her head out.

It was chaos outside—Helen and Bill were running across the space in front of her tent, both carrying mag-pros. They dove to the ground behind Bill's hydroponics tank and then both looked up over it and started firing.

"Uly!" Devon screamed somewhere off to Julia's right, and then her heart lurched as she saw Uly huddled next to the tent across from her. He looked terrified. A Terrier galloped into view in the gap between the tents behind him, and Julia saw it turn its head toward Uly.

And then she was running, grabbing Uly and rolling with him in her arms away from the gap in the tents just as the Terrier galloped through. Heading straight for Helen and Bill. "Helen!" Julia screamed. "Behind you!"

Helen turned, and Bill followed, but both were an instant too late. Helen fired right as the Terrier did, but her round missed as the Terrier leaped high over her head and landed on the far side of the hydroponics tank.

But its arrow didn't miss. Bill looked surprised at the arrow sticking out of his chest, then slowly fell to his knees. Helen caught him as he slumped to the side. "Bill!" she gasped, dropping her mag-pro to hold onto him.

Julia looked around wildly, and saw she was right in front of the mess tent. "Uly," she said, shoving him toward the tent flap, "get in there and hide." He crawled in, and Julia scrambled to her feet and ran for Bill.

"Julia, look out!" she heard Valerie yell from somewhere off to her left, and she turned and skidded to a stop as a Terrier galloped right down the center of the camp toward her. It started to raise its weapon, but it stopped short, standing in front of Julia. Its antennae-horns bent towards her. She braced herself, looking up at it, wide-eyed, certain it was going to shoot her at any moment. And for a brief, awful moment she wished it would. _No__,_ she thought, shoving her self-doubt into a dark corner of her mind. _No, I have to get to Bill—he needs me. _She glanced over at him lying just behind the Terrier, saw Helen's face, and looked back up at the Terrier. _Please._

"Julia!" she heard someone else yell from behind her, but before she could figure out who it was, her head began to pound even worse. She took an involuntary step back, raising one hand to her head, and then the Terrier launched itself past her and out the gap between two of the tents. Julia stood there for an instant, breathing hard and blinking at the pain in her head.

"Doc! Julia!" Danziger yelled from behind her somewhere. "Get the hell down!"

Julia shook herself and sprinted the last few meters to Helen's side. "Help me get him into the med tent," she said, and between them they were able to drag him in. Julia grabbed the diaglove and started scanning him. She stopped and looked up at Helen. "Get out there," she said. "I need Melanie."

Helen nodded, and as she turned for the tent flap, there was a bright flash outside, followed almost instantly by a loud roar. "What the—?" Helen said.

* * *

"Uly!" Devon yelled, diving into the mess tent. "Where are you?"

"I'm here, Mom," he said, crawling out from under a table.

"Are you okay?" Devon said, grabbing him.

"Ow!" he said. "Don't squeeze so hard."

"Sorry, tiger," she said, relieved, and she eased her grip. "You're sure you're okay?" She ran her hands over him, looking for any injuries.

"Yeah, except for my stupid head hurting," he said. "What about Julia?"

"She's fine," Devon said.

"Did you see her?" Uly asked, recovering fast. "She totally tackled me!"

"Yeah," Danziger said from the tent flap. He was holding his hands in the air, using his elbow to hold the tent flap open. "That was something."

"Come on," Devon said, picking Uly up. "Let's make sure everybody else is okay." She turned to Danziger. "Is Tru—?"

He nodded. "I threw her in the Transrover the minute I knew what was going on. And I know Alonzo's okay, though I think Julia's bad demonstration of broken field running just about gave him a heart attack. I think everybody else is fine, and it looks like the Terriers are gone, at least for now. What about Bill?"

"I don't know yet," Devon said. "It looked bad."

"They were really mad, some of them, I could tell, so I was scared," Uly said, "and I just froze. But she was scared, and she just ran and wham!" He smacked his hands together.

Danziger came the rest of the way into the tent, being careful not to let his hands touch the flap.

"What happened to your hands?" Devon said. "How bad is it?"

"I'm a little toasted, is all. I've had worse," he said.

"I think the Terriers thought Julia was cool, too," Uly said. "Or at least the one did."

"I know," Devon said. "I thought sure it was going to shoot her." She took a deep breath. "That woman has at least nine lives. Thank god." She took Uly by the hand, held the tent flap open for Danziger, and the three of them headed over to the med tent.

Devon pulled the tent flap back and ducked in. "How is he?" she said, looking down at Julia, who was working on Bill.

"I don't know yet," Julia said without looking up. "Uly's in the mess tent. He's okay."

"I know, I have him. You're crazy, and I could kiss you right now," Devon said, but Julia wasn't paying any attention.

"Helen, go! I need Mel," Julia snapped, seeing Helen still hovering by the tent flap, looking back at Bill. She looked up at Julia, and Julia smiled reassuringly. "It'll be okay, Helen! Just go!"

"What can I do?" Devon said.

Julia ignored her, reading Bill's scans. The arrow had just missed his heart, and had punctured his left lung. Amazingly, that was the worst of the damage. No major arteries, no other vital organs. Julia breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's okay," Julia said. "He's going to be fine."

"I don't…feel…fine," Bill whispered.

"Just relax," Julia said, and grabbed a hypospray. She dosed him with painblock and then studied the scan to figure out the best way to remove the arrow without causing any more damage.

Melanie came in the tent. "Danziger, you are completely insane," she said, almost laughing as she passed him on her way in. "Did you hear that boom? He just did a flashback on the generator. If it scared the crap out of me, imagine—oh, hell—" she said, realizing what she was looking at, and she ran to Julia's side. "What do you need?"

"I need to get the arrow out, but I need both hands to do it. You'll have to scan for me." Julia looked up at Devon. "We've got this. Go make sure everybody else is okay, Devon."

Devon nodded and went outside with Danziger and Uly. It was a completely different scene than it had been even moments before. There wasn't a Terrier in sight, just a few arrows sticking in the ground.

It took them a while to account for everyone and make sure the Terriers were really gone, but within twenty minutes it was clear how lucky they'd been. Bill was the only major injury, and Danziger's hands were the next worst. They spent another few minutes making sure they had sentries placed all the way around the camp, setting up a warning system, and reassuring everyone that Bill was still alive. By then, it was full dark.

"What the hell is a flashback anyway?" Devon asked Danziger on the way back to the med tent.

"It's kind of an overload," he said, looking vaguely embarrassed. "You can do it with some of the old-style generators, like the ones they had on the escape pods. It makes a big flash and a lot of noise, but it doesn't usually do anything more than that. It's blue collar fireworks."

"It seems pretty dangerous," Devon said, nodding at his hands.

"Nah, most of the time you set it off with a remote," he said. "I just didn't have time for that this time."

"You're almost as crazy as Julia," Devon said.

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Danziger grinned. "Besides, it was actually Tru's idea."

They ducked inside the tent flap and found Julia still working on Bill, and the arrow was still in his chest. Helen was watching, looking worried. Julia tapped a command into the diaglove. "Okay, I've done all I can with the arrow in place. Melanie, I need you to take over here," she said. She took off the glove and handed it to Melanie. "I'm going to remove the arrow, and I want you to sponge and coagulate as I go. This is important—he's already lost a lot of blood, so we need to minimize any further loss. Understand?"

Melanie nodded, looking surprisingly calm.

"Okay, Bill, how's the pain block?" Julia asked.

"Oh, just fine," Bill said thickly.

"This is going to hurt," she said. "But I don't want to risk sedating you at this point. Can you handle it?"

"G'ahead," Bill said.

Julia took a deep breath and took hold of the arrow. "Okay, Mel," she said, and before Bill knew what was happening, she'd pulled the arrow out.

His back arched momentarily in pain, then he collapsed back. "Jesus," he breathed.

"How are we doing?" Julia asked, glancing over Melanie's shoulder at the diaglove readout. She turned back and began closing the lung wound.

"It's okay," Melanie said as she finished. "The bleeding is minimal. I think we got it, Julia."

Julia nodded. "Can you take care of closing while I find out how everybody else is?"

Melanie nodded, and started in. "You're doing great, Bill," she said. "Now you get to find out how good a seamstress I am."

Julia turned to Devon. "What other injuries do we have?" she said.

"Just Danziger's hands," Devon said.

Julia grabbed the other diaglove and studied his hands. She treated them with neoderm and turned back to watch Melanie finish up with Bill. "Good work, Mel," she said. "We'll keep him here for a while, to make sure the bleeding's under control and his lung is holding up," she said to Helen. "You're welcome to stay here with him."

"Thanks, Julia," Helen said, and pulled up a camp stool. "Oh! Wait!" She hesitated looking down at Bill, who was sleeping. She looked up at Devon. "We got one of the bouncy things, but we had to leave it in the brush just outside of camp when the attack happened. I should go get it."

"Can't it wait till morning?" Melanie said quietly.

Helen shook her head. "We need to get it on ice now, before any other animals get to it."

"Don't go alone," Devon said. "Take Rick and Rob both with you, and keep your eyes open."

Helen nodded. "We'll be back in a few," she said, and ran out.

"I need to get cleaned up," Julia said. "Can somebody hold the tent flap for me?" Devon did, and they headed outside with Danziger at their heels.

"Heller!" Alonzo said, coming up on his crutches. "I'm gonna kill you!"

"Why? What did I do?" Julia said, holding her bloody hands in the air.

"What did you do?" Alonzo said, furious. "You almost got yourself killed, that's what!"

"Now, see that doesn't make any sense," she said, her voice deceptively calm. "If you don't want me to get killed, then why are you saying you're going to kill—"

"That Terrier had an arrow pointed right at you!" He looked like he wanted to shake her.

"Come on, Alonzo, let her get cleaned up. Then you can let her have it," Danziger said, and he tried to pull Alonzo away, but Alonzo seemed determined.

"No way," he said. "You don't get off that easily."

"Solace," Julia said tiredly, "I have blood all over me, I just spent the last two hours putting Bill back together, and my head is killing me. If you think that's getting off easy, you can go to hell." She headed for the water supply, and Devon followed her.

Danziger held Alonzo's arm. "C'mon, 'Lonz. Let her go. It's not like you yelling at her is going to make her do anything different next time."

"He has a point," Melanie said from the door of the tent. "And something tells me she's not in the mood to listen to either of us just yet."

Julia elbowed the spigot on one of the water tanks on and let the water sluice over her hands. She wiped them off, blood streaming off them, then she elbowed the tank closed. "God, my head hurts," she said, leaning her forehead against the cool side of the tank for a moment, then turning to look back at Alonzo. "And what is his problem, anyway? The one thing I've done right in god knows how long, and he's mad at me? It's not like anything bad happened to me—Bill's the one with an arrow in his chest. It's like he thinks he has some claim on me, like I owe him something. After what he's done!"

"I think it's interesting that you seem to get more talkative the more tired you are," Devon said, smiling at her.

"What?" Julia said, and it was clear she hadn't realized Devon was still with her.

"Nothing," Devon said. "Look, I just wanted to say thanks. For getting Uly out of the way."

Julia waved her wet hand. "Think nothing of it. I sure didn't give it much thought at the time." She frowned. "That didn't come out the way I meant it."

Devon laughed. "Come on, you need to get some rest." _And I really need to have that talk with Alonzo. He seems bound and determined to screw this up, and I __really__ don't want that to happen._

* * *

"So what do we do now?" Toshiko said, sitting by the fire.

"Same as we've been doing," Devon said. "We keep moving. We'll have to be more careful—keep everybody tighter in by the vehicles, more sentries—but we can't stop. Hopefully, we'll move out of their territory and they'll leave us alone."

Bess looked worried. "What if they want something we have, though?"

"What?" Danziger said, Tru crouching by his side. "It's not like they've seen anything we have before. My bet is they wouldn't know what to do with it."

"And if they show up again?" Valerie said.

"We can't afford to antagonize them," Devon said. "There are a lot more of them than there are of us, and there's a chance that this was just one group that took a disliking to us. If they show up again, nobody fires unless fired upon. Is that clear? I don't want us to end up in a war just because one of us got scared."

"But Devon—" Valerie began.

"I mean it!" Devon said. "Think about it, Valerie. We got off how many shots today and hit nothing? And they got Bill. If they really decide we're a threat to them and they gang up on us, we're done. Our only chance is to keep a low profile. And if the opportunity presents itself, we negotiate."

Valerie nodded after a moment. "Sorry, Devon," she said. "It just makes me mad that we can't really do anything."

Julia got up and headed for the med tent, thinking about what Devon had said about negotiating. _What if somebody else has already?_

"Julia," Helen said, coming out of the med tent. "I wanted to talk to you. I've never done anything like butchering an animal, so I don't have clue one about where to start. So I was thinking—"

"Absolutely," Julia said, nodding. "I wanted to have a look at it anyway, and I'd need to scan it to be sure it's safe. But can it wait till tomorrow?"

"Of course," Helen said, smiling. "And…" She hesitated. "Listen, I know you're not the touchy-feely type, and neither am I, so let's just pretend that I gave you a big hug. Thanks for helping Bill." She nodded sharply, then headed over to the fire before Julia could say anything.

Julia watched her go and felt a momentary sense of relief. _At least I managed to get that one right_, she thought, and then saw Tru trotting towards her.

"Are you okay?" Tru said as she came up. "That was pretty crazy what happened today. I saw that Terrier ready to shoot you, and I thought you were a goner."

"I'm fine," Julia said. "How are your dad's hands?"

"He says they don't hurt, but he's lying," Tru said matter-of-factly. "I was wondering if you could give him another painblock before we go to bed. He's really not very good at taking care of himself. And since it's pretty much my fault he got burned…" She trailed off meaningfully.

"Of course," Julia said, stifling a smile. _So she really does care_, Julia thought. "Let me go grab my kit." Tru nodded and wandered back towards the fire where her father was laughing at something Rob had said.

"Hey, Heller," Alonzo said. She turned to look at him. He was standing by the med tent braced on the crutches Danziger had made for him.

"Solace," she said.

"I've made a pact with myself," he said.

Julia frowned. "What?"

"I'm going to stop doing things that end up with me apologizing to you," he said.

"Good idea," she said.

"So I was thinking—"

"Now that's a bad idea—so far, your thinking keeps getting you into trouble," Julia said.

"Yeah, good point," he said. "Tell you what. You're way smarter than I am. How about I run my ideas by you before I do anything about them?"

She shook her head. "My thinking hasn't been all that good at keeping me out of trouble either. I don't think I could handle trying to think for the both of us."

Alonzo sighed. "You aren't making this easy, you know."

"Life is hard, Solace. Get used to it," she said, and walked past him and into her tent.

Alonzo was ready to follow her in, but Valerie walked up to him, shaking her head. "Let it go, Solace," she said. "Sometimes you're a lot better off walking away. Trust me."


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: Apparently, I'm channeling the Star Trek movie curse, because the odd numbered chapters are giving me hell (don't worry—Worf won't be showing up with a zit). I've been fussing with this one for weeks now, and it's driving me crazy. It doesn't help that RL is equally hellish this week. So the pace of posting is going to drop dramatically now. Sorry—I'm entering the dog days of summer semester, which means massive amounts of grading and talking down panicking students. Thanks to all for the kind reviews! I really debated long and hard about where to post this story, and I'm deeply grateful to all you Earth 2 fans for giving me the benefit of the doubt and reading on in spite of my taking such liberties._

* * *

Earth Two

Chapter 7

Over the next several days, they settled into an uneasy routine. Hardy took Bill's place with Helen on the hunting expeditions. The bouncy creatures—which Helen and Toshiko decided to call tangaroos, much to Devon's dismay—turned out to be surprisingly good to eat, and Julia found they were an excellent source of protein. Bill was recovering, but Julia didn't want him over-exerting himself too soon, so he spent most of his time in the Transrover or looking after the hydroponics for Helen in camp.

The hydroponics were a source of joy to most of them. The tomatoes came in sooner than expected, which Helen explained in complicated terms no one really understood, or cared about. Bill took the credit, however, and though they were less than flavorful, they were a welcome change. Helen made everyone save every seed, anticipating being able to either grow them in real soil once they got to New Pacifica, or setting up more hydroponics or even a greenhouse over the winter.

The terrain had evened out, the rocky foothills giving way again to rolling fields of grassland. The tangaroos seemed fewer the farther they got from the hills, and Helen spent a lot of her time collecting plant samples for Julia to analyze. Julia had determined that several were edible, though no one really seemed to like them much.

For Julia, the aftermath of the Terrier attack had given her plenty of distractions. But as things settled down again, she began worrying again about Brendan, especially since it had been so long since she'd given him a full report. Unfortunately, the heightened security Danziger and Devon had imposed after the attack made it nearly impossible for her to get away from camp, so she hadn't been able to report in again. Which only added to Julia's growing fear that she'd blown it. _I have to find a way to report to him soon_, she thought, feeling the edges of panic creeping in as she followed along behind the Transrover. _But what am I going to say?_

Danziger continued to scout ahead, sometimes sending Hardy out on alternate routes. They both called in the afternoon to report to Devon. "It looks like this northern route I found is the better bet. That spur of the mountains the sat images showed is a little more substantial than we thought. To the south, you run into a bunch of steep ridges. Hardy doesn't think we can get the 'rover over them. But up here it looks passable."

"How far north?" Devon said, remembering Julia's concerns about winter coming.

"Not too bad," Danziger said. "It's maybe twenty k out of our way, and it looks like it's relatively flat on the other side, so we should be able to make up the time."

"You went twenty k?" Devon said, annoyed. "You're not supposed to go that far, Danziger!"

"Hey, look, we needed to know which route to take, and I couldn't tell without going this far," Danziger said. "I'm on my way back now. I should be able to make it before it gets dark."

"You'd better," Hardy piped in. "If you're going over rough terrain, you'll use up more juice. And it looks like it could rain. That'll cut back on the solar."

Danziger rolled his eyes. _Thanks a lot, Hardy. Now Adair's going to worry even more._ "Not a problem. I've only got about fifteen k to go and I'm holding a full charge," he lied.

"How close are you, Hardy?" Devon said.

"Maybe ten k out. I'll be back in…probably a little over an hour. The terrain is slowing me down a little," he said.

"Okay, we'll set up camp here. Hurry back," Devon said. "I want the ATV back in case we need to go save Danziger's hide. But be careful."

"Hey!" Danziger said. "I can look after my own hide, thanks."

* * *

Alonzo made his way to the mess tent on his crutches, but as usual, getting inside with them was a complicated maneuver.

"Here, let me help with that," Valerie said, coming up from behind and holding the tent flap open for him.

"Thanks," he said.

"Why don't you go ahead and sit down?" she said. "I'll grab you a bowl of whatever looks least repulsive."

Alonzo smiled. "I appreciate it," he said. He headed for the nearest table and maneuvered his way onto the bench, his leg sticking out to the side. He set his crutches down, and Valerie came up with two bowls.

"It's that funky meat again," she said, sounding annoyed. "I know it's better than the synthofu, but it does get a little old having it for every meal." She plopped down on the bench across from him. "So how's the leg?" she said.

"It's better," he said, sawing at the meat with his knife. "Julia thinks I'll be able to put weight on it today or tomorrow, and maybe get rid of the crutches in another week or so."

"That's great!" Valerie said. "I'm sure you'll be glad to be on your feet again. No more physical therapy."

He nodded. "Yeah, that part I won't miss," he said, though he didn't sound too enthusiastic about it.

Valerie looked at him intently for a moment. "You're crazy about her, aren't you?"

Alonzo's head shot up, and then he looked chagrined. "Is it that obvious?"

"To everybody but her," Valerie said.

Alonzo sighed. "I suck at this," he said. "I mean, I know everything about how to score. It's not that part. But I've never been in one place long enough for a real…relationship," he said the word like it pained him, "to be practical. I just don't know what to do."

"Listen," Valerie said, taking pity on him. "I don't want to butt in, but I used to know somebody an awful lot like her, and you're going about this all wrong."

"I'm just using a trial and error approach," he said, waving one hand airily, then smiled wryly. "Emphasis on error. But did you have something specific in mind?"

"To start with, yelling at her for risking her life," Valerie said dryly.

Alonzo winced. "Yeah, I figured that out. I just—I mean, she doesn't even think before she does those things!"

"Exactly," Valerie said emphatically. "The thing you need to understand is that for her, the work will always come first. And it won't even occur to her to think about it, and it doesn't have anything to do with how she feels about you. Trust me, if you try to make her choose between you and what she sees as her duty, you will lose. Every time."

"I don't want to make her choose," Alonzo said earnestly. "Watching her after the crash, and seeing how hard she worked…that's one of the things that drew me to her. I just want her to be smart about it."

"So let her know that," Valerie said. "And make sure that you're there for her with no guilt attached. If you make her feel bad for not being around you as much as you'd like, she'll dump you so fast your head will spin."

Alonzo looked at her appraisingly. "The voice of experience," he said.

"Oh, yeah," Valerie said. "It's work being with somebody like that. But if you can pull it off, it's worth it."

Julia came in and grabbed a bowlful of tangaroo meat. She added a tomato, then turned to find a place to sit. Alonzo was sitting across from Valerie, and there was plenty of space next to them, but Julia hesitated. She turned instead to sit next to Phoebe, who smiled at her as she sat. Unfortunately, the seat she'd chosen gave her a perfect view of Valerie, who was still talking to Alonzo.

Julia looked away, trying to interest herself in the conversation Phoebe was having with Todd. "See, now that we're stuck here on our own, I think we're probably a perfect example of Marx's concept of primitive communism," Todd was saying. "We all share in the means of production, we all contribute to the good of the whole—"

"Most of us, anyway," Phoebe said dryly.

Julia lost the train of the conversation after that, watching Valerie and Alonzo. There was something weird about it that Julia couldn't put her finger on. She ate in silence, wondering what it was that bothered her. Valerie laughed at something Alonzo said, and she flipped her red hair back over her shoulder with one hand.

_Is she __flirting__ with him?_ Julia thought, surprised. And irritated. She looked away, frowning, and caught Helen looking with narrowed eyes at Valerie. Helen glanced over at Julia, and Julia looked down at her food, suddenly embarrassed. _Why does it matter if she is?_ she asked herself.

_You know exactly why_, she told herself. _You told yourself you wouldn't do this, that you'd let it go. You have other, far more important things to worry about._ She made herself finish her meal, then got up to go, passing Alonzo and Valerie as she did.

Alonzo turned and saw her go and reached for his crutches.

"Here, let me help you," Valerie said.

"No, I got it," Alonzo said, getting to his feet. "Thanks, though. And for the advice, too." He knocked the tent flap open with one crutch and ducked through it.

Valerie looked appraisingly after him for a moment, and then Helen sat down across from her.

"What are you doing?" Helen said, smiling.

Valerie raised her eyebrows. "Um…eating dinner?" she said as if it were self-evident.

"You know what I mean," Helen said, still smiling, though there was an almost predatory look to it.

Valerie frowned in confusion. "You're going to have to spell it out for me, Helen. Apparently I'm clueless."

"Look, I know you've got a bug up your butt about Julia, for whatever reason," Helen said quietly. "That's your problem. Don't make it mine by going after Alonzo."

"What?" Valerie said, loud enough nearly everyone in the mess tent looked at her. She lowered her voice. "What on earth makes you think I'd go after him? Come on, Helen, you know me better than that," she said, and she genuinely sounded surprised.

"But-well, that's what it looked like," Helen said lamely.

"Oh, man," Valerie said, biting her lip. "I'm not even remotely interested in him. I didn't even think—I mean, I was just—" She stopped and sighed. "Shit. Look, if you get a chance, could you maybe explain to her—?"

"Explain?" Helen said incredulously. "I have no idea what we're even talking about. How could I explain anything?"

* * *

Melanie sighed. The excitement of the Terrier attack had almost been a welcome change from the boredom she'd been feeling. But now that it was over, the boredom was back, and Julia wasn't exactly helping. Melanie glanced over to where Julia was hunched over her lab table, relentlessly running tests on the plant samples Helen had brought her.

They were at least on speaking terms again, but that was about it, and Melanie really missed even the limited conversations they'd had before.

She shook herself and picked up her tablet. Maybe there was a puzzle game she hadn't done a dozen times already. She started to look and noticed the little flag she'd set to show up if she picked up another odd signal. She opened the folder and was stunned to see that there were now a total of 7 recordings.

_What the hell?_ she thought, kicking herself for not having noticed it sooner. _Not that it would have made much difference, since I still can't decrypt them_. She checked the time stamps on the recordings. Most were about two days apart, but there were a couple of longer gaps, and it had been four days since the last one_. So it __can't__ be something automated broadcasting on a schedule_, she thought. _That pretty much rules out the supply pods or another escape pod, even if we thought one had survived. Which leaves what?_

She shook her head. _The only way you'll ever figure that out is if you figure out how to decrypt them. Good thing I went ahead and set it to automatically record. At least that way I have them if I can ever do that._

She started to mention it to Julia, then stopped herself. There really wasn't much point to it if she couldn't tell her what the recordings were, and she didn't want to suffer through another clipped response. She bit back another sigh and went back to staring at the encrypted recordings, hoping to crack them through sheer force of will.

* * *

Danziger glowered up at the sky as it started to rain. _Damn it, Hardy,_ he thought. _You just had to say it_. He looked down at the gauge and winced. _Less than twenty percent, with cloud cover and night coming soon. Adair is gonna be pissed_.

He took his foot off the accelerator as he crested another hill and let the rail coast down, trying to eke out as much from the charge he had as possible. _Who knows?_ he thought. _I might get lucky_.

Moments later, he regretted having tempted fate by thinking it. The rain got heavier, and as he approached the bottom of the hill, the dirt was quickly turning to mud. He hit a small rock, and the rail bounced a little. When it hit the dirt again, the back end started to slide. Danziger turned into the slide, but it was too late. Both of the right side wheels hit a low ridge of rock, and the rail tipped on its side.

Danziger found himself counting each time he saw sky above him, and got to three before he lost his grip on the steering wheel. The next thing he knew, he was looking at the sky again, but this time lying on his back, gasping for air with the wind knocked out of him.

_Yep, Adair's gonna be pissed_, he thought finally, getting his wind back. He tried to raise himself on his elbows, but it was hard. He was on a slight slope with his head pointed downhill. He groaned as he saw how bad his situation really was. The rail had come to a stop on its side on a wide expanse of rock—with the roll bar right on top of both of ankles. "Ow," he said as he became aware of just how uncomfortable it was. Miraculously, it didn't feel like anything in his legs was damaged, but the weight of the rail was painful. He tried to lean forward to see if he could lift it, but he couldn't get anywhere near enough leverage to even move it a little.

"Great," he said aloud, leaning back against the rock. He reached up and couldn't feel his gear. "Oh, it just gets better and better," he said, looking around for it. It took him a while to find it, but amazingly it was just barely within reach, close to his feet and just under the rear of the rail.

He sat up, grabbed for it, missed once, then got it on the second try. He leaned back again, wincing at the pressure the rail was putting on his ankles, put the gear on his head, and opened a channel.

And paused. "Hey, Melanie, you there?" he said finally.

"I'm here, Danziger," Devon answered promptly. "What's wrong?"

"Uh, nothing," he said, knowing he sounded weird. _I need to get Tru to give me some lessons_, he thought. "Listen, could I talk to Tru for a second?"

"What did she do?" Devon said.

"Nothing," Danziger said impatiently. "I'd just like to talk to my daughter for a minute, okay?"

"Okay, okay," Devon said. "Hang on."

"What'd I do?" Tru said moments later.

"Nothing!" Danziger said. "Listen, um, is anybody else still listening?"

"No," Tru said warily.

"Good. So, listen, things got a little crazy after Bill got shot, so I kind of forgot to talk to you about this, but I remembered today, and I wanted to tell you before I forgot again," Danziger said.

"Okay…?" Tru said, drawing out the word skeptically.

"That idea you had, about the flashback, that was a really good idea. I wanted to thank you for coming up with it. I was pretty proud of you—proud enough that I'm not going to ask you how you knew about flashbacks."

"Thanks," Tru said, and he could hear the frown. "Um…is something wrong? You sound kind of…weird."

"No, nothing's wrong," he said, then paused. "Well, I…uh…had a little accident," he said finally.

"How little?" she asked worriedly.

"Well, I'm kind of…stuck," he said, closing his eyes and cursing his luck.

"Stuck how?"

"The rail, um, rolled a little, and I…uh…can't get my feet out from under it," he said.

"Oh, and you wanted me to be the one to tell Devon? Thanks a lot!"

"No!" Danziger protested. "I really did want to tell you that about the flashback. But…if you wouldn't mind telling her…"

"Hey, Devon!" Tru called. "My dad has something he wants to tell you!"

"Damn it, Tru!" he hissed.

"What is it?" Devon said.

"I…" _Oh, hell, just spit it out, Danziger._ "I rolled the rail."

"You what?" Devon yelped. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just…stuck. The rail's sort of…on top of me."

It took almost five minutes before Devon stopped yelling at him. "Okay," she said finally. "So you're stuck. And you need us to come get you."

"Yeah," he said.

"How's the charge on the ATV?" Devon asked Hardy, who'd just come in.

He frowned. "It's at about forty percent right now," he said.

"How far out are you, John?" Devon said.

_She's calling me John_, he thought. _I'm in so much trouble._ "About ten k out," he said.

Devon looked over at Hardy. He shrugged. "We still have some daylight left, but with the cloud cover..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "It'll be dicey. They could make it, or they could get partway and have to stop."

Devon sighed. "It'll have to do. At least if they can't make it tonight, they'll be that much closer when they start tomorrow."

"But they'll be out there overnight," Valerie said nervously. "What about the Terriers?"

"That's a risk we have to take," Julia said, coming up. "I can be ready to go in a few minutes."

"No," Devon said. "I think Melanie should go."

"But—" Julia began.

Melanie held up her hand. "She's right. I have to be able to do this sort of thing in an emergency, right? If there's something I can't deal with, you'll be available on gear."

Devon shot Melanie a grateful look.

"Come on," Melanie said to Julia. "You can help me pack up."

Julia hesitated, looking like she was ready to protest again, but she finally followed Melanie back to the med tent.

"Who else is going to go?" Toshiko said. "I mean, if you need somebody who can help lift the rail..."

"I think Rick is our best bet," Devon said, but Rick shook his head.

"I injured my ankle while I was out with Rob yesterday," he said, and Rob turned to look at him, frowning. "Sorry, Rob, I didn't want to worry you at the time." Rick turned back to Devon. "I think Rob should go."

Devon nodded. "Have Julia take a look at your ankle," she said to Rick. "Rob, I want you in contact on the gear at all times. Just because we haven't seen any Terriers in a week doesn't mean they aren't out there. Have Melanie drive, and you keep the mag-pro ready. Got it?"

"Um...uh..." he said, hesitating. "Could I talk to you alone for a second, Devon?"

Devon gave him a weird look, then nodded. She turned to Rick and Hardy. "Why don't you guys get the ATV ready."

"Sure," Rick said.

"Maybe we can figure out a way to transfer some juice from the 'rover," Hardy said.

"Good idea," Rick said.

"Danziger?" Devon said into her gear.

"Yeah," he said, sounding annoyed.

"Help is on the way," Devon said. "We'll have somebody out there soon."

"I'm not goin' anywhere," Danziger said glumly.

Devon smiled at Rob. "So what did you need to talk to me about?" she said after she closed the channel to Danziger.

"Well," Rob said, looking enormously embarrassed, "it's about...Melanie."

_I should have known_, Devon thought. _He breaks into a cold sweat whenever she's within ten meters of him._ "Do you have a problem going with her?"

"No!" Rob said. "No...I just...we'll be out there for a long time...alone..."

"Yes," Devon prompted after a long silence. "And?"

"What do I say?" he said in a rush, and then blushed to the tips of his ears.

"Rob, you have absolutely nothing to worry about," Devon said reassuringly. "Melanie will take care of it."

"What do you mean?" Rob said, looking confused.

Devon fought back a smile. "Rob, she's been throwing herself at you since we crashed."

Rob's eyes went wide. "She has?"

Devon nodded. "Like a hanging curveball. You'd have to work really hard to avoid knocking this one out of the park." He looked baffled by the metaphor. "Not a baseball fan, huh? Never mind. Look, just relax. Be yourself. You'll be fine."

He didn't look like he believed her, but he nodded and headed off to help Rick and Hardy.

Devon watched him go, smiling to herself. "Men," she said out loud, shaking her head.

* * *

"Woah," Melanie said, watching Julia adding all sorts of things to the portable med kit. "I don't need the whole med tent. Remember, it's going to be two of us on the ATV. I don't particularly want a bunch of—what are you putting in there? Catheters? Seriously?"

"Well, you—" Julia paused, looking down at the med kit. She sighed, frustrated. "You're right. Sorry."

"No problem," Melanie said, smiling. "I just don't think catheters are all that conducive to romance."

"I still think it should be me going," Julia said, not even noticing Melanie's comment.

"Why? Don't you think I can handle it?" Melanie said.

"What? No, of course you can!" Julia said, turning to look at her, but Melanie was grinning.

"You're such a control freak," Melanie said, grinning, then looking contrite when Julia glared at her. "I'm sorry—I know this is hard for you, but we'll be fine. I promise." She took the med kit from Julia and zipped it shut.

"Be careful out there, okay?" Julia said, looking uneasily at her.

Melanie smiled fondly at her. "It's nice to know you still care," she said quietly.

Julia looked embarrassed. "I do, against my better judgment. Just…don't do anything stupid."

"No problem," Melanie said dryly. "I'll just imagine what you'd do, and do the opposite." Julia glared at her again, and Melanie grinned back. "Besides, I'll have Rob with me. Finally, my big chance!"

"Don't let that distract you," Julia said warningly, then frowned when Melanie looked at her like she was an idiot. "I mean it! You don't know what might be out there."

"Okay, okay," Melanie said, putting her hands up placatingly. "I promise, I'll be careful. See you soon!" She turned and left the tent.

_Great_, Julia thought. _Now I'll have one more thing to fret about while I'm stuck here doing absolutely nothing._

* * *

"Devon, could I have a word with you for a minute?" Valerie said, coming up next to Devon.

"Sure," Devon said absently, studying one of Melanie's sat images.

Valerie looked uncomfortable. "It's about Julia," she said.

"What about her?" Devon said, looking up and frowning. _Please don't this be another interpersonal relationship landmine_, she thought, knowing Valerie had been almost hostile towards Julia at times.

And it suddenly occurred to her for the first time why that was. _I can't believe I didn't think of that before_, Devon thought, remembering what Toshiko had shown her in Valerie's background check. _No wonder she's been so weird._

"I'm worried about her," Valerie was saying. "I don't know if you'd noticed, but she goes off by herself a lot. She'd been doing it before the Terriers showed up, and I didn't really think anything of it. You know what a loner she is. But she's still doing it, and I don't think it's safe."

"Wait—you're worried about her?" Devon said, catching up with the conversation.

Valerie rolled her eyes. "Yes, Devon. I'm not a complete asshole, you know. Tosh explained a few things to me, and…well, long story short, I decided I shouldn't be mad at her anymore."

"Oh," Devon said uncertainly. _What on earth did Tosh explain to you?_ she thought, starting to review in her mind what she knew about Julia, and then deciding that would take too long. "Okay. So what do you mean by going off by herself?"

"I mean, she leaves the camp entirely and goes off somewhere," Valerie said. "I haven't followed her to see how far she goes—I didn't want to spy on her. But the other day—right before the Terriers attacked—Melanie was looking for her, and I had seen her leave. And she'd turned off her gear. That's violating two of the basic rules she argued for when we first got here. "

Devon looked troubled. "Okay," she said finally. "I'll talk to her about it."

"Thanks," Valerie said. "I'd have done it myself, but…well…I haven't exactly handled things with her well."

"No," Devon said evenly. "You haven't."

Valerie looked pained. "I'm trying to do better," she said. "I just don't want anything to happen to her before I get a chance to fix it."

* * *

Rick ducked into the med tent a few minutes after Melanie and Rob had gone. "Hey, Julia," he said, and he looked embarrassed.

"So what happened to your ankle?" Julia asked, putting on her diaglove.

"Yeah, about that," he said, smiling shamefacedly. "I kind of...exaggerated a bit."

Julia raised her eyebrows.

"Well, see, Rob and I have been talking a lot lately, and, um, he's told me some things," Rick said. "He's kind of hung up on Melanie. When they decided she was going, I thought—"

"Oh," Julia said. "I see."

"Yeah," Rick said. "Listen, it'd kill him if he knew I'd told you—"

Julia nodded. "I'll keep it to myself," she said, smiling a little.

"And while you're at it," Rick said, hesitated, then continued, "maybe you could cut Alonzo a little slack."

Julia stiffened.

Rick raised his hand placatingly. "I don't know what he did, and maybe it's more than I think. If so, I'm sorry. But pretty much everybody knows there's something going on between you, and it's making him miserable—"

"Really?" Julia said skeptically, thinking of him eating dinner with Valerie earlier.

"—and it's not making you all that happy, either," Rick finished. "Look, we're all stuck here together. What's wrong with finding a little happiness wherever you can?"

"And what makes you think Solace can make me happy?" Julia said coolly.

Rick tried not to smile. "Never mind," he said. "Forget I said anything." He headed out of the tent. "Thanks for the help with the ankle," he said as he ducked out.

Julia stood looking after him for a long moment. _Why is everyone so damned interested in my love life?_ she thought angrily. _What makes them think I even __want__ one?_

"Excuse me," Morgan said, ducking into the tent. "I was wondering if you'd take a look at something for me. I have this rash—"

"Oh, for—" Julia began, thinking of the last "rash" Morgan had demanded she look at. And the one before that. "No, Morgan, I'm not going to look at your rash." She pushed past him and out of the tent.

"But—" Morgan said, starting after her. "But I have these big red bumps! It's some sort of alien virus or something!"

* * *

"What do you think about trees?" Rob said, riding on the back of the ATV.

"Excuse me?" Melanie said, frowning.

"Trees," Rob said.

"What do I think about trees?" Melanie said, unsure of what else to say.

"Yes," Rob said, and now he sounded nervous.

"Rob, is something wrong?" Melanie said.

"Wrong?" Rob said, and his voice almost squeaked.

"You seem a little weird," Melanie said.

"Weird?" Rob said.

"Yes, Rob, weird. Like repeating everything I say and asking me what I think about trees," Melanie said. "What's going on?"

"I'm just…trying to pass the time. You know, small talk," he said.

"Small talk," Melanie said. "I see." _It's a good thing socially awkward brainiacs are my type_, she thought. "I think trees are…lovely."

"I've never really thought about them before," Rob said. "I mean, I'd seen them in VR, but that's different. Here, it's…they're…" He trailed off.

"Bigger?" Melanie said.

"Yes!" he said desperately. "Bigger!"

_I must not laugh_, Melanie thought. _I can't laugh at him, it would break his heart._ "You know," she said, thinking fast, "I was thinking about your distilling process for getting pure water. Isn't that the same process they use for making alcohol?"

"Sort of," he said, sounding surprised at the change of topic. "You'd have to ferment something first, some sort of carbohydrate. For that you'd need yeast, or some equivalent—something to convert the carbohydrates into alcohol."

"How would we get that?"

Rob considered it for a moment. "You know, we might be able to use Julia's synthlab. I think it has protocols for synthesizing single-celled organisms. If we could do that, then…" He launched into an explanation of the process, and he relaxed visibly as he talked more. By the time they were three-quarters of the way to Danziger, he was able to carry on a normal conversation with only minor stumbles.

Unfortunately, that was about the same time the ATV started to wind down. It finally died completely when they were still about three kilometers from Danziger.

"What do we do?" Rob said.

"I could go on to Danziger by myself," Melanie said. "And you could bring the ATV along in the morning once you got it charged."

"No," Rob said adamantly. "Not with Terriers around. No way."

"All the more reason not to leave Danziger there by himself all night, especially not knowing what his medical condition is," Melanie said.

"Then we go together," Rob said.

"But what about the ATV? We'll need it if the rail is damaged."

"We push it," Rob said. "It's only three kilometers." He disengaged the transmission and started to push, straining to get it moving. Melanie sighed and put her shoulder behind it.

* * *

It was starting to get dark, and there was still no sign of Melanie and Rob. Danziger tried to sit up for a little bit so his head would stop pounding, but it was hard to hold that position for long. _Man, I've gotten soft_, he thought. _There was a time I'd have shoved the rail over without breaking a sweat_. He shook his head. _Yeah, that was ten years and 20 pounds ago._ And that sparked a bad thought. "Hey, Adair?" he said over the gear.

"What?" she said, still sounding annoyed. He winced.

"Could you make sure that somebody keeps an eye on—"

"Tosh has Tru with her in the mess tent right now," Devon said. "Did you really think I'd let her run around unsupervised? I can only handle one Danziger headache at a time."

"Um, thanks," he said.

"Do you have your mag-pro?" Devon asked out of the blue.

Danziger winced again. "It's…um…in the rail," he said, hoping she'd just assume that meant it was accessible.

"The rail that's tipped over on you," Devon said evenly.

"Yeah," he said, knowing he'd been stupid to think she wouldn't see through him.

"So can you reach it?" Devon said patiently.

"Not exactly," he said, looking up at the mag-pro, which was wedged next to the driver's seat. It could have been on the stations for all the good it was doing him right now.

Devon sighed. "Wonderful," she said. "You're doing this just to annoy me, aren't you?"

"Yeah, Adair," he said dryly. "I'm really enjoying myself. You'd be surprised how relaxing it is to lie here on my back with 800 kilos of rail on my ankles for a few hours. The blood rushing to my head is a special treat."

"Sorry," Devon said, sounding a little less annoyed. "It's just…you do realize that I worry, right?"

"Yes, Adair, I do realize that," Danziger said. _I think everyone within fifty parsecs is aware of it_, he thought. "And I appreciate it."

* * *

"We should be getting close, shouldn't we?" Rob said, and he sounded as tired as Melanie felt.

"Danziger!" Melanie shouted.

"Yeah!" they heard him say faintly from just over a small rise ahead of them.

Melanie looked over at Rob and grinned. "Close enough!" she said, and she stopped pushing the ATV and set off at a run. Rob grabbed the mag-pro out of the ATV and ran after her.

"Man, am I glad to see you guys," Danziger said as they came up. "Wait—where's the ATV? Why are you on foot?"

Melanie pulled out her diaglove and started scanning him while Rob looked at the rail. "We lost power about three k back," Rob said. "The ATV is just over the hill there. We pushed it here."

"Damn, I'm sorry," Danziger said. "That must have been a bitch."

"You're lucky," Melanie said, reading the diaglove scan result. "Another klick, and I might have had to give you some injuries for me to treat."

Danziger snorted. "Believe me, Adair's gonna take care of that for you when we get back. Heck, just the stuff she said over the gear left a mark."

"How do we get it off him?" Melanie said, looking up at Rob.

He shook his head. "We're definitely not just shoving it—there's too much chance it could just roll back and squish him."

"I'm all in favor of not getting squished," Danziger said. "Did you bring any biocord?"

"Yeah," Rob said, nodding. "Just what I was thinking." He looked up the hill at a small tree. "That'll do nicely," he said. "Hang on—I need to go back to the ATV. I'll be right back." He hesitated, then took off at a run.

"So what do you think, Mel?" Danziger said. "Should we take our time getting back so Adair can cool down, or will that just make it worse?"

"Worse," Melanie said, patting his shoulder. "Definitely worse. She was worried enough about you being out here as it was."

"Yeah," he said. "That's what I was afraid of."

Rob came trotting back over the hill with a coil of biocord in one hand and the mag-pro in the other. He was looking anxiously back over his shoulder.

"What is it?" Melanie said. "Did you see something?"

He frowned. "I don't know. I thought I did, but I can't be sure."

"Let's not wait to find out," Danziger said impatiently.

"What can I do to help?" Melanie said, standing up.

"Hang on," Rob said. He tied the biocord around the roll bar right next to Danziger's legs, then tossed the rest of the cord up over the rail. He ran around to the uphill side of the rail and set down the mag-pro. He grabbed the cord, then ran up the hill to the tree and looped the end around the tree.

"Uh…guys…nobody make any sudden moves," Danziger said quietly.

Melanie yelped, and Rob whirled to see a Terrier standing no more than five meters from her, holding its crossbow at the ready.

"You leave her alone!" Rob yelled, dropping the cord and charging back towards them. He grabbed Melanie and pushed her behind him. "Don't you lay a finger—claw—don't you touch her!"

"Rob!" Melanie gasped.

"Easy there, cowboy," Danziger said, wishing he was in a position to do more than talk. "Just stay cool, okay, Rob?"

The Terrier looked at Rob, its enormous eyes blinking for several long seconds. Melanie held her breath, wondering what Rob was planning to do. But then the Terrier slowly lowered its weapon. It held out its hands, the claw tucked into the palm.

Rob blinked back at it, then mirrored the gesture. The Terrier dipped its antennae-horns at him, backed away slowly, then turned and galloped off.

Melanie let out the breath she'd been holding with a gasp.

"Uh, Rob?" Danziger said. "Next time, you might want to bring the mag-pro with you when you decide to stare down a Terrier."

Rob looked back at the far side of the rail where the mag-pro was still lying on the ground, and his face went white, and for a second Danziger was afraid he'd pass out. Melanie was looking up at him wonderingly.

"Danziger," Melanie said after a long moment, "I need you to close your eyes for a minute."

"Huh?" Danziger said.

"Close…your…eyes," Melanie said deliberately, and she looked down at him with an intense glare.

"Okay," he said, and closed his eyes.

Melanie turned, put one hand around Rob's neck, and pulled him down into a long, deep kiss.

Rob's eyes went wide.

After a moment, Melanie released him. "Okay, Danziger, it's good."

"Yeah," Rob breathed. "Good."

* * *

"Uh, Tosh?" Valerie said, coming up to where Toshiko was standing sentry, looking comical holding a mag-pro that was almost longer than she was. "I need a favor."

Toshiko turned to her, surprised. "Sure, Valerie. What is it?"

"I need you to talk to Julia," she said.

Toshiko frowned. "Why? What did you do?"

Valerie sighed. "I didn't do anything," she said defensively. "I was just talking to Alonzo, but I guess it looked like—I mean, even Helen thought—"

"Ohhhh," Toshiko said, looking dismayed. "And you want me to try to convince her it wasn't?"

"Do you think she'd listen to me?" Valerie said.

Toshiko pursed her lips. "You have a point there. But I'm probably not the best one to tell her. Everybody already thinks I'm Little Mary Sunshine."

Valerie laughed. "Well, aren't you?"

"Hey, you're the one here asking for a favor, remember?"

"Sorry," Valerie said contritely. "I guess you have a point. But…who else is there?"

"Melanie," Toshiko said without hesitation.

"Tosh, she hates my guts," Valerie said.

"All the more reason," Toshiko said pointedly. "If you really want to convince Julia you're not the mean girl stealing her boyfriend, you need to convince Melanie first. Besides, it wouldn't hurt you to try to mend some fences with Melanie, too." Toshiko smiled.

"Thank you, Little Mary Sunshine," Valerie said dryly. _I must have been a horrible, horrible person in a past life_, she thought.

* * *

"Time for your PT," Julia said to Alonzo, coming up to where he was sitting by the Transrover.

"Great," he said, smiling. He wasn't surprised when she didn't smile back, but there was something odd about her behavior that he couldn't put his finger on. He watched her face as she put on her diaglove and scanned his leg, and he couldn't tell what she was thinking. _As usual_, he thought, and sighed inwardly.

"So," he said tentatively, "how are we doing?"

Julia glanced up at him for an instant, then looked back down at the readout. "Good," she said. "Really good." She looked back up and actually smiled. "I think it's time to put some weight on it."

"Seriously?" he said, his eyes lighting up.

Julia nodded. "I want you to stand up—no, just keep your weight on the left leg for now," she said quickly. "I don't want to risk putting too much on it all at once. Put your hands on my shoulders." He did, trying not to look as pleased as he felt, and she put her hands on either side of his chest. "Okay, we're just going to shift your weight a little, but keep most of it on your good leg. How does it feel so far?"

He grinned. "It feels good!" he said.

"I meant your pain level," she said warningly.

"That's what I meant," he lied, but then realized it really did feel good. "Honest, it feels fine."

"Okay," she said. "Shift a little more of your weight onto it." She held him tight, keeping him from shifting too far to the right.

He winced slightly. "Okay, that hurts a little."

"Ease back," she said immediately. "How is it now?"

"Better," he said. "It aches a little, but it's not bad."

"Sit down," she said. "I want to scan it again."

"Okay, but first," he said, and he pulled her into a hug. "Thank you," he said, and he was amazed when she didn't automatically pull away, though he could feel her heart pounding. He let her go before she could pull away, and she looked up at him and smiled tentatively.

"You're welcome," she said quietly.

He grinned. "See, you're learning!"

* * *

"Okay," Rob said, running back to the rail with the end of the biocord. He slid it underneath the rail and Melanie grabbed the end and pulled it on through. "With the three of us pulling, I think we can tip it."

"I sure hope so," Melanie said. "Let's give it a shot." She handed the part of the cord closest to the rail to Danziger, then uncoiled the rest and Rob grabbed hold.

"Okay," Rob said. "One, two, three!"

They strained at the cord, and the rail creaked. The front wheels shifted slightly.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Danziger said, but when Melanie started to let up, "No! Keep pulling!"

The rail shuddered, then slowly tipped and landed on its wheels with a crash. It started to roll.

"The emergency brake!" Danziger yelled.

Rob lunged forward, dove into the rail and pulled the brake. The rail slowed, then stopped.

"Well," Melanie said, "at least we know it still rolls."

"Help me up," Danziger said, wincing as he rotated his ankles tentatively. Rob grabbed his hands and with Melanie's help, they got him standing.

"How do they feel?" Melanie asked.

"Sore," he said, "but functional. Let's see what kind of charge we have in the rail." He leaned into the vehicle and grinned. "We're actually at almost fifteen percent. That should get us back to the ATV anyway, and we can see if this baby still works right." He clambered into the driver's seat and Melanie loaded her med kit into the back seat and climbed in, with Rob following.

Amazingly, the rail seemed relatively undamaged. Even the solar panel had survived the roll intact. They made it back to the ATV with no problem, and set up camp for the night.

"We'll start back as soon as we get a full charge in the morning," Danziger told Devon over the gear after they'd gotten a fire started.

"Okay," Devon said uneasily. "Be careful, okay?"

"No problem," he said, and closed the channel.

"Aren't you going to tell her about the Terrier?" Rob said.

Danziger looked at him like he was an idiot.

"She's worried enough already," Melanie said, nodding at Danziger. She glanced out at the darkness surrounding them. "Do you think it's still around?"

"I don't know," Danziger said. "But considering it could have easily killed all three of us without breaking a sweat earlier, and it didn't, I'm not too worried about it."

"Why?" Rob said. "I mean, not why aren't you worried, but why did it let us go?"

Danziger shrugged. "Maybe it thought you were cute," he said, grinning.

"Ha, ha," Rob said, glaring.

"I don't find that so hard to believe," Melanie said, looking sidelong at him.

Rob's eyes went wide again, and Danziger laughed. "Slow down, Melanie. You're freaking him out."

"Hey, I can't help it if a guy risking his life for me turns me on," she said archly.

_We'll be lucky if we make it back without Rob hyperventilating_, Danziger thought.

* * *

Late the next morning, Julia was reviewing her scans of Alonzo from the night before. The progress was amazing—the bone density in the areas of the fractures was actually greater than the surrounding bone, and even the surrounding bone was significantly denser than it had been before the treatment. _And he'll be able to walk without the crutches within four, maybe five days at the outside, depending on how long it takes the muscles to recover. All that twice as fast as I'd anticipated. I'll have to test this on the people who had the vaccine_, she thought happily.

But as proud as she was of her success with Alonzo's leg, she couldn't help thinking about the rest of the events of the night before. She found herself remembering the feel of his arms around her, and she shook herself.

_Stop it. You can't let yourself get too close to him_, she told herself fiercely._ To any of them._

"Julia?" Bess said over the gear. "Could you come to our tent, please?"

"What is it, Bess?" Julia said.

"It's Morgan," she said.

"What now?" Julia said, and she couldn't help sounding annoyed.

"I—I'm sorry," Bess said. "I know sometimes he...exaggerates, but this is different. He has these big red lumps all over, and he seems to be having trouble breathing. And—" She stopped.

"What?" Julia said, suddenly nervous.

"Well, it's going to sound silly, but…he started talking funny."

Julia's blood ran cold. "Like high-pitched?" she said.

"Yes!" Bess said. "How did—?"

"I'm on my way!" Julia said, grabbing her diaglove and turning to her dispensary chest. She grabbed a med kit, several vials, her hypospray, and an intubation guide and ran for the Martins' tent. She nearly ran over Devon on her way.

"Julia?" Devon said as she ran past, and she turned to follow her. "What is it?"

Julia ripped the tent flap open. Morgan was lying on his cot, and he was breathing with an ominous whistle. Julia slapped one of the vials into the hypospray and injected him without even running a diagnostic. She ripped out the vial and replaced it with another and injected that as well.

"What is it?" Devon said, coming in. "Bess, what's wrong?"

Julia ignored her. She grabbed the intubation guide and placed it over Morgan's mouth. "Open wide," she ordered, and he did, looking terrified. "Try not to swallow—it'll be hard, but try." She triggered the guide and watched the readout as the tube snaked its way through his vocal folds, which were showing a dangerous amount of swelling, and into the trachea. She breathed a sigh of relief as it dilated slightly to open the airway. Julia placed an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose.

"Julia?" Bess said in a small voice.

"It's okay," Julia said. "He'll be fine now." She shook her head. "God, I'm sorry, Morgan. I should have listened to you before. The rash he mentioned to me last night," she said to Bess. "What did it look like?"

Bess came over and lifted Morgan's shirt. "Like that," she said, and pointed to the large red welts covering his chest.

Julia put her hand over her eyes for a moment. "It's an allergic reaction. Has he been bitten by anything?"

Bess shook her head. "Not that I know of, anyway." She glanced at Morgan, who shook his head.

"What about foods? Has he eaten anything new recently?"

Bess shrugged. "Nothing that the rest of us hasn't," she said. "Actually, less than the rest of us. He hasn't tried any of the plants you said were safe to eat. Just the tangaroo meat, synthofu, and Bill's tomatoes."

Julia frowned. "Has he touched anything—any plants that are new?"

Bess shook her head. "You know Morgan," she said, ignoring his frown at her. "If he could be in a hermetically sealed bubble, he would be." Morgan made an outraged noise, then gagged a little.

Julia looked thoughtful, then turned to Devon. "Could you bring me one of Bill's tomatoes?" she said.

Devon looked surprised. "Uh, sure," she said. "I'll be right back." She ducked out of the tent.

"The tomatoes?" Bess said.

"Did he have any this morning?" Julia said, though she already knew the answer.

"Well, yes, but—"

Morgan grabbed Julia's arm. He raised his other hand questioningly.

"Relax, Morgan," Julia said. "I think I know what caused this. We'll find out for sure, and I can prevent another reaction."

He gestured at his neck, where she'd injected him.

"Histamine blocker and an anti-inflammatory," she said. "I should be able to remove the tube within fifteen minutes or so. Just lie back and try to breathe normally."

He rolled his eyes.

"I know," Julia said, squeezing his hand. "I'm so sorry, Morgan. I know better than to dismiss a symptom like I did last night."

Devon came in with a small tomato in her hand. "Here," she said, handing it to Julia.

Julia took it, grabbed a small knife out of her med kit, and poked it into the tomato. She turned, rolled up Morgan's sleeve and found a spot with no welts on it. She pricked his arm with the tip of the knife.

"What are you doing?" Bess said.

"If we see a welt rise up here, we'll know it's the tomato," Julia said.

"You mean it's not something from the planet?" Devon said, incredulous. "A completely alien planet, and the thing that he's reacting to is something we brought with us?"

Julia nodded. "I know, it sounds crazy, but I've heard of this before. Some of the older generation nutrient solutions they use in hydroponics can cause allergic reactions."

"Oh, my," Bess said, pointing. There was a small welt rising on his arm.

"And that's even with the histamine blocker in him," Julia said, nodding. "I think we've found our culprit." She smiled at Morgan. "Don't worry, Morgan. I can put together an anti-allergen treatment. You'll have to get a dose once a month, but you'll be able to eat all the tomatoes you want."

He shook his head wildly.

"Easy," Julia said. "Just keep still." She stayed with him for another half an hour, waiting to remove the tube until the welts had gone down significantly. Bess thanked her as she left the tent, but Julia shook her head. "Look, just bring him by later today. I'll want to make sure he's responding well to the histamine blocker. Keep him inside for now. I don't want to take a chance on him running into anything that could cause another reaction. If he shows any other signs—trouble breathing, new welts, anything—call me immediately. I'll have the anti-allergen treatment ready for him by the time you bring him by."

Devon followed her out. She almost ran into Julia outside the tent. Julia had stopped and had her hand over her eyes again.

"Julia?" Devon said, putting her hand on her shoulder, and Julia jumped. "Are you okay?"

Julia nodded. She took a shaky breath. "I really screwed up," she said quietly.

"What? Morgan's fine," Devon said. "Though I think you could have left the tube in a little longer," she added under her breath. "He's a lot easier to deal with when he can't talk."

"No," Julia said. "You don't understand. He came to me last night. He said he had a rash, and I completely ignored him."

"I think that's understandable," Devon said, guiding her away from the Martins' tent so they could talk freely. "Everybody knows he's a hypochondriac."

Julia shook her head emphatically. "First year human behavior," she said. "Hypochondriacs can really get sick. You never, ever ignore a symptom. God, Devon, another few minutes, and his airway would have closed."

"But it didn't," Devon said. "You got there in time, and it's all okay. Come on, everybody makes mistakes now and then."

Julia looked at her. "Devon, when I make mistakes, people can die." She turned and headed for the med tent.

Devon watched her go, frowning. _Well, now certainly isn't the time to hassle her about going off on her own so much. It's so easy to forget how young she is,_ she thought. _She always seems so competent, so together. But she's still just a kid in a lot of ways. _Devon smiled a little at the thought. _She's—what?—ten years younger than I am? When did I get to be such an old lady?_

* * *

Danziger, Melanie and Rob arrived back at midday, and their story about the Terrier was a sensation. Danziger was surprised at how well Devon took the news, but apparently she was focusing more on the behavior of the Terrier than on the fact that it could have killed them.

"So you think it was friendly?" Devon asked after they'd finished telling the story.

"That's the only thing I can figure," Danziger said.

"The hand gesture it made sure looked like it was trying to be non-threatening," Rob said.

"Well," Devon said, "I guess that makes our policy of not shooting first even more important."

"So we still get to be sitting ducks?" Valerie said, frowning.

"We've been through this already, Valerie," Danziger said.

"Come on, you're putting our lives at risk on the basis of a hand gesture?" she said. She flipped off Danziger. "That could easily be interpreted as non-threatening, too, but that's not what it means to us, is it?"

Rick stifled a laugh.

Danziger glared at her. "Would you like a demonstration of what I think is threatening?" he said darkly.

"Stop it, both of you," Devon said. "This is not up for negotiation. If there's a chance that we can develop some kind of at least neutral relations with the Terriers, we're going to try to do it. So if we see another Terrier, our rules of engagement stand. Nobody fires unless fired upon. Is that clear?"

There were nods from everyone, though Valerie and a few others still looked unhappy about it.

Melanie grabbed Julia's arm and started to drag her off toward the med tent. "So, what do you think?" she said, grinning.

"About what?" Julia said, following her.

"About what happened out there!" Melanie said, ducking into the med tent.

"I think Devon's right," Julia began, but Melanie was shaking her head.

"Not about that," she said. "About Rob!"

"Rob?" Julia said, confused.

"Weren't you listening?" Melanie said. "He was ready to take an arrow for me!"

"Oh," Julia said. "That's certainly impressive."

"Impressive?" Melanie said. "It's romantic!" She was nearly glowing with delight.

Julia couldn't help but smile. "Okay, it's romantic," she conceded.

"So, listen, since we're sticking around here for the rest of the day, I'm probably going to be a little…busy," Melanie said. "In fact, you might not see me at all. For quite a while."

"Okay," Julia said, bemused.

"Well, see, Rick is off hunting with Helen, and Bill is working on the hydroponics, so Rob has his tent all to himself…" Melanie trailed off significantly, raising her eyebrows.

"Ah," Julia said, smiling again. "I see. Well…have fun."

* * *

That evening, Julia headed over to work with Alonzo again. She'd just finished checking up on Morgan. He'd seemed fine, though he was convinced he was having another reaction. She'd had to scan him three times before she was able to reassure him. Bess had shot her a grateful look as she left.

_It was the very least I could do_, Julia thought bleakly.

"Hey, Heller!" Alonzo said. He got up from his bunk, clearly ready to start.

"Careful," Julia said. "You're doing well, but I am not taking any chances, okay?"

"Sure, no problem," he said, grinning. "We'll take it slow."

They spent almost an hour working, starting by putting a little weight on the leg again, then shifting to working on strengthening the muscles by using Julia as resistance as he flexed both the upper and lower leg.

Alonzo had been a little disappointed at first in Julia's manner—she seemed distant and cold again, not the way she had been the night before. But as the hour passed, he started to wonder if something else was going on.

"So…do you want to talk about it?" he finally asked.

Julia frowned. "About what?"

"Whatever it is that's bothering you," he said.

Julia pressed down on his leg. "Not particularly," she said quietly.

"Hey, I'm a good listener," he said.

"Since when?" she said.

"Since always! You just never say anything, so you haven't had a chance to find out." He smiled ingratiatingly. "Come on, Heller. Remember what I told you that day after you blew up at Morgan?" She winced, so subtly he almost missed it, but it was enough that he realized suddenly what it was that was bothering her. "This is about what happened with Morgan this morning, isn't it?"

Julia didn't say anything, continuing to press down on his leg.

"Ow!" Alonzo said, and she released him immediately.

"What is it?" she said, scanning the leg with the diaglove.

"You're hurting my feelings," he said, and gave her his best puppy-dog eyes.

She stopped scanning and put the diaglove back into her bag. "We're done here," she said.

"Heller," he said warningly. "Don't you walk away from me. I'll just follow you, and I might hurt myself trying."

She turned and looked at him, exasperated. "I don't want to talk about it," she said insistently. "I don't need to talk about it. Nothing is bothering me. I'm fine."

"You're a terrible liar," he said. "Look, I heard what happened, and there isn't a person in this camp who wouldn't have done the same thing, with the possible exception of Bess, and even her I'm not so sure about."

"That doesn't make it right," Julia said bitterly, and then looked like she regretted having said it.

"You're right," Alonzo said. "It doesn't."

She frowned at him, surprised by that response.

"So what are you going to do about it?" he continued.

"I…" Julia stopped, and shook her head. "I don't know."

"The way I see it, you have two options," Alonzo said. "First, you could stew about it, work yourself sick trying to make up for it, and generally make yourself miserable. I bet you could do that pretty well."

"And the other option?" Julia said warily.

"Decide that you won't make the same mistake again, and move on," he said, and he held up his hand when she started to speak. "Wait, just listen for a second. I want to ask you one more question, and I want you to think hard about this. Which of those two options do you think is better for the people in this group?"

Julia looked at him for a long time, looking faintly annoyed, then nodded. "Okay, you've made your point."

"Good," he said. "Now come over here."

Julia tensed.

Alonzo looked at her, disappointed, then got to his feet and started hopping toward her. She took an involuntary step backwards, but he grabbed her arm.

"Alonzo, wait—" she said.

"Jeez, relax, Heller!" he said. He took her by the shoulders and looked into her eyes. "You are not perfect. But no one here expects you to be. Except for you." He smiled and squeezed her shoulders. "Now go get some sleep, okay?" He released her and turned and hopped back to his bunk.

She stood there for an instant, completely taken off guard, then turned and headed for her tent, her mind running in circles. _When did he stop being infuriating and start being so nice?_ Somehow, he'd found exactly the right things to say, and she felt far better than she had all day.

Julia heard Melanie giggle as she passed Rob's tent, and she smiled. She ducked into the med tent and sat down at her table. She started to scan another of Helen's samples, then became aware of an annoying beeping sound. She frowned, looking around, and then realized it was coming from her VR chip.

_Dear god_, she thought, horrified. She grabbed it, trying to figure out how to shut it off, but couldn't find any way. She grabbed her gear and headed for the tent flap. She looked around, trying to figure out if there was a way to sneak past the sentries.

"Going somewhere?" Valerie said.

Julia whirled. She was standing a few meters away, her hair shining like copper under the light from the Transrover. "Uh, no, I was…just going to go see if Mel was still over at Rob's tent." She tightened her grip on the VR chip in her pocket, hoping Valerie wouldn't hear it.

"She is," Valerie said, coming closer. "I think she'll be there for a while, if you know what I mean."

"Oh…okay, thanks," Julia said, and turned to go back into her tent, but Valerie followed her in.

"Look, Heller, whatever you do out there can't be worth the risk you take leaving camp," Valerie said. She was standing just inside the flap, holding it open with one hand, and she was rhythmically crumpling the material of the flap with that hand.

"I don't know—"

"I get that you want to pretend that nobody knows what you're doing, but I do. And you need to stop it." She hesitated, looking like she wanted to say something else, but then turned abruptly, lifted the tent flap and left.

_What could she know?_ Julia thought. _Could she have followed me?_ She stood there for a moment before she remembered the VR chip beeping in her pocket.

Julia pulled it out and plugged it into her gear. The beeping stopped, but she could hear a faint voice saying through the earpiece, "Report immediately." She shoved the gear on and flipped the eyepiece into place. Brendan sprang into view.

"Where the hell—?"

"Not now, damn it!" Julia whispered. "And don't use that beeping again or you'll lose me completely!" She ripped off the gear, breathing hard, and flung it onto her table.


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: So for those of you interested in the writing process, this is the chapter I started with. It has gone through a lot of iterations in the ten months since I first began the story, but the basic elements are the same. I was watching Brave New Pacifica, and bam! the idea whapped me upside the head. Two days later, I had most of this chapter, and the framework for the first seven worked out. Making it all work was harder than that, but it has been fun. Thanks again for all the great reviews. I'm really glad my writing in this has prompted some of you to check out my other work. I'm pretty proud of the stuff I wrote for Legend of the Seeker. I've written a lot over the years, but that was the first time I wanted somebody else to read it._

Earth Two

Chapter 8

Julia's hopes for Alonzo were more than realized. He was able to put his full weight on the leg within two days, though the leg was still weak, and it tended to ache if he stayed on it very long. She made him keep using the crutch, though it was as much to keep him from pushing his recovery too fast as it was for any real benefit.

But any of the good feeling Julia derived from that was more than offset by the scrutiny she felt from Valerie. It seemed like every time she turned around, Valerie was looking at her. It made it next to impossible for her to even attempt to get away to report.

It wasn't until late on the third day after Brendan had made that nearly disastrous attempt to contact her that Julia felt like she could take the chance. Melanie was visiting Rob again, and Valerie was on sentry duty. Julia had to crawl out under the back of the med tent and continue crawling for nearly thirty meters before she felt she'd gotten far enough to avoid detection if she got to her feet.

Julia winced as she stubbed her toe on a rock in the shadowy dimness of the late twilight. Both moons were barely crescents, and their light only made it hard for her eyes to adjust to the darkness.

_As difficult as it makes it for me, it's good it's this dark_, she thought. _Less chance that anyone from the camp will see me._

_See you sneaking off, you mean_, a rebellious part of her added silently. _This is stupid—Valerie is absolutely right: it's reckless to be wandering this far from the camp._ But it would be just as bad—and maybe worse—if she didn't report in, she reminded herself.

_Stop it_, she told herself harshly as she stopped at the edge of a steep embankment. _Just get this over with as fast as you can. _She flipped her VR eyepiece into place and the darkness around her dissolved into the sterile blue room where she reported in.

"Welcome back," Brendan said. "I was beginning to think something had happened to you. Is everything all right?"

Julia blinked at him. She'd been expecting distrust or hostility, but concern? "We were attacked by the natives," Julia said, trying to adjust her approach. "One of our people was shot."

"Shot?" he said, his eyes widening.

"Yes, shot," Julia said quietly, fighting back the urge to snap the words. "With an arrow. I've been dealing with that, and they've doubled the guards at night, so I couldn't report in sooner. And I need to keep this short. There might still be Terriers nearby, and I have no idea what they'd do if they caught me out here."

"Terriers?" Brendan said.

Julia sighed. "It's the name they've given the natives," she said. "Now, listen, if you use that beeping again, you'll lose me. They already suspect me."

"Oh?" Brendan said. "Well, we can't have that, can we?"

_What's going on?_ she thought, her frustration building. _One minute he's yelling at me for not reporting in often enough, and now—what is this?_

"Just make certain you aren't found out," Brendan said. "Report in if you have an opportunity, but don't take any chances. But as long as I have you, how is the Adair boy?"

Julia's frustration was quickly shifting to anger. _Don't take any chances?_ she thought furiously. _Seriously__?_ "He's still doing well," she said, trying to keep calm, her head beginning to ache. "I'm starting to wonder—" She stopped abruptly, wincing as the pain in her head spiked suddenly. _This isn't just a headache_, she thought uneasily, and was hit by a bizarre sensation.

"What is it?" Brendan said. "Is someone there?"

"I…I don't know…my head…god, this hurts," Julia said uncertainly, trying to figure out what she was feeling. Behind the intensifying pain in her head, she'd suddenly felt angry, but it was a weird, disconnected feeling. _It's not even me_, she thought, her eyes widening as she realized that somehow the emotion she was feeling was coming from outside her. She felt a ripple of nausea, and the sensation of anger grew. "I—I have to go," she blurted and ripped off the headset, turning around as she did.

There was nothing there. _No_, Julia thought. _There's something there, I just can't see it. And it's really, really mad at me. I can feel it. How is that __possible__?_ She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself as she tried to make out anything in the darkness. But the lights from the camp in the distance were only enough to obliterate her night vision. "Who's there?" she said tentatively.

There was another surge of anger, and this time she felt like it was coming from off to her left. _What the hell is going on?_ The anger was building steadily in intensity, and Julia had to fight the urge to bolt for the camp. She edged her way along the embankment away from the source of the anger, but it followed, and the emotion took on almost a physical force. It was getting hard to think rationally, the anger beating against her like a gale. She found herself raising her arm to ward it off, but there was no way to hold off the pounding emotion, especially with the pain in her head.

The source of the feeling was moving, and her heart sank as she realized it was cutting her off from the camp. "Okay," she said, "I get it, you're angry. I really get that, so could you maybe ease up on whatever it is you're doing to—"

She stopped abruptly as a figure loomed in front of her. _Oh, god, it's a Terrier_, she thought wildly as the six limbs were silhouetted against the dim light from the camp, and then the anger took on a triumphant edge. _It knows I'm scared_, she thought. _But __how__?_ She hesitated on the verge of yelling for help, but it would mean explaining why she was out here in the first place. _I have to get out of this on my own_, she thought, trying to edge toward the camp again.

For a moment, the emotions hammering her shifted slightly, taking on a questioning almost curious feeling. _And it doesn't seem to be holding a weapon_, she thought hopefully. _Maybe I can convince it to leave me alone._

_Please, I don't mean you any harm, _she thought, trying to convey her peaceful intentions_._ But for some reason, that only made things worse. The emotions shifted abruptly to anger again, and the intensity was terrifying.

Julia tried desperately to muster up defiance, but it was useless—somehow it knew just how vulnerable she was. "I-I'm sorry, whatever I did, I'm—" The anger pounded at her, and she wondered how long she could stand it.

All at once the feeling redoubled, but now with conflicting emotions, and the pain she'd been sure couldn't get any worse did. For a moment, it seemed like there was a second Terrier nearby. "Don't, please—you're hurting—!" she said, and she found herself stumbling backwards.

There was a sudden shift in the emotion to one of panic, and the Terrier lunged at her. "No!" she shouted as it grabbed at her. Its hand caught her neck, and she had an awful sensation of sliminess. She wrenched away, and felt its claw scrape painfully across her neck. She nearly fell, her arms wheeling to regain her balance, and she stepped backward…

Onto nothing. Her heart lurched as she felt herself falling, and even as she cried out, she hit the ground hard, bouncing and tumbling down the embankment into the darkness.

* * *

"What the hell was that?" Alonzo said to Rick.

Rick raised his mag-pro uncertainly and powered it up, looking out into the growing dark. "I don't know…it sounded like somebody yelling, but…"

"Not just somebody," Alonzo said uneasily. He turned and limped as quickly as he could back toward the tents, wishing he hadn't spent so much time on the leg that day—it really hurt to move that fast. He ripped open the med tent flap. "Heller!" he called, but even as he said it, he knew she wasn't there. "Shit!" he said. He grabbed his crutch, turned around, and half-hopped back towards where Rick was still standing, staring into the darkness. "C'mon," he snapped at Rick. "Heller's not in her tent." He started off awkwardly towards where the sound had seemed to come from.

"Crap—Alonzo! Wait! You can't just go out there!" Rick protested from behind him. Alonzo heard him swear as he lurched forward, his crutch sliding out from under him as it hit a rock. He wrenched himself wildly back upright, and felt a sharper twinge of pain in his leg that eased into an ache as he tried to push himself forward.

"Danziger!" Rick yelled back into the camp. "Get out here! Now! Dammit, Alonzo, wait!"

Alonzo ignored the commotion behind him, but stopped cold when he thought he heard something ahead of him. It sounded like movement, but he couldn't be sure. He waited, listening for anything more from out in front of him, and was hit by a wave of…something. He staggered slightly, wincing at a sudden pulsing pain in his head, trying to sort out the sensations he was feeling—fear—_no, panic, definitely panic_—tinged with guilt, and under all of that a sense of anger.

"What the hell's going on?" Danziger bellowed.

_Good question_, Alonzo thought fuzzily, reeling at the onslaught of sensations.

"It's Heller. She's not in her tent, and Alonzo and I heard something—it sounded like her yelling. If it was, she's pretty far out there," Rick said.

_Jesus_, Alonzo thought as the sensations faded away. _What the hell is out there?_ For a moment, he almost said something, but he couldn't figure out how to put it in words. _ Besides, nobody would believe me if I told them what just happened. Hell, I don't believe it, and I just felt it._

"Damn it!" Alonzo heard Valerie say as he was debating with himself. "That idiot! I told her—"

"Why would she leave the camp?" Helen said at almost the same time.

"Beats the hell outta me," Danziger said, and Alonzo turned to see him coming up next to him. "But if she did, it sounds like she's in trouble…" He gave Alonzo a hard look. "You stay here," he said, and it was clear that was an order. "I don't need you breaking your other leg trying to run around in the dark, got it?"

"But—" Alonzo protested.

"No!" Danziger snapped. "Stay here!" And he ran off in the direction Alonzo had been headed. Alonzo started after him, to warn him about whatever was out there, but Devon grabbed his arm.

"He's right, Alonzo. If she's in trouble, she'll be a lot better off if we don't have to rescue you, too," she said gently. Alonzo looked out at where Danziger was disappearing into the darkness and hoped that whatever it was had already gone.

Danziger slowed down as he realized how dark it really was. The flashlight was barely enough to see the ground ahead of him. He stopped short as he saw motion off to his right. He turned, panning the flashlight around, following it with the barrel of the mag-pro, and froze as the light illuminated a Terrier scrambling up over a hill. "Shit," he muttered, and turned back toward the camp. "Everybody stay put!" he bellowed. "There are Terriers out here!"

"Danziger, wait!" Rick yelled, panting as he caught up. "You can't go after her alone. You need somebody to watch your back."

"Yeah," Danziger muttered. "C'mon—it was coming from over there." He pointed his flashlight off towards where he thought the Terrier had been. "You keep your eye on that hill—it went that way, but it might come back." Rick nodded, and they set off.

Danziger kept panning the flashlight back and forth, hoping Heller had at least had the good sense to bring a flashlight with her, but he didn't see anything. "Doc!" he yelled, but there was no response. He pushed forward, stopping only when he came to the edge of an embankment. He looked along its edge, but nothing was moving that he could see.

"Oh, no," Rick murmured, and Danziger turned to see Rick's flashlight pointed down the embankment at a crumpled, dust-covered form thirty meters down—a form with light brown hair.

Danziger started down the embankment, skidding wildly, then edging his way back to his right to avoid sending rocks down on the motionless doctor. "Go get Melanie!" he yelled back up at Rick. "Tell her we'll need the med kit!" He didn't wait to hear Rick's response. He slid to a stop parallel with Julia and made his way across to her.

It looked like she'd tumbled down the hill and landed hard against a big rock. _That had to hurt_, he thought. She was lying on her side, her back against the rock and her face half-covered by her hair. "Doc?" he said, hoping for some response, but she didn't move. "C'mon, Doc, say something." He leaned over her and brushed the hair away from her face, wincing when he saw a nasty cut on the side of her forehead that was bleeding heavily. There was an ominous dark spot in the dirt under her face. "Julia?" he said gently, and felt for a pulse.

It was there, and reassuringly strong. He let out a sigh of relief. "Hang on, Doc. We're gonna get you out of here. Just hang on." He looked up the embankment and stopped himself from yelling for them to hurry when he saw Devon pull up short at the edge.

"Is she—?" Devon called down shakily, and Danziger was quick to reassure her.

"She's out cold, but her pulse is steady. I need to be sure there aren't any serious injuries before we move her."

"I've got the med kit. They're looking for Melanie. Hang on," Devon said, and started toward the edge.

Helen stopped her. "Here, tie this around you," she said, holding out a length of biocord. "We don't need you going to the bottom the hard way." Devon quickly knotted the biocord around her and started down, picking her way carefully.

Danziger waited impatiently by the doctor, wishing he could make Devon move faster and knowing she was right to be careful. She finally got there, shoved the diaglove onto her forearm and began scanning Julia. "Thank god," she breathed after what seemed like hours. "A serious concussion, some bruising, and that nasty cut, but nothing worse."

Danziger turned and gave a thumbs-up to the crowd that had gathered at the top of the embankment. "Rick, keep your eyes open for the Terriers," he yelled. "Helen, we're gonna need a stretcher—something we can load her on to get her up the hill."

"I'm on it," Valerie called and disappeared.

"Julia?" Devon said, leaning forward.

"Is she awake?" Danziger said, turning back to look.

"I don't know," Devon said. "I think she moved a little." They were rewarded with a faint moan a second later. "Julia?" Devon said. "Can you hear me?"

"Wh…what happened?" Julia mumbled almost inaudibly, turning her head slightly towards them, her eyes half-open. She winced at the bright light of the flashlight.

"We were hoping you could tell us," Danziger said acidly, then softened his tone. "You had us worried, Doc."

"'m sorry," she said faintly, and then her eyes slid shut again.

"Don't worry about it," Devon said, and rested her hand gently on Julia's shoulder. "Where the hell is that stretcher?" she said under her breath, looking back up the slope.

Valerie showed up moments later. They lowered her and the stretcher down and Danziger lifted Julia as gently as he could into it. "What the—?" he said as he pulled his hand from behind Julia's neck. There was a weird substance on his hand, and he shone his flashlight on it.

"What is that?" Devon said, looking concerned.

"It looks like…mucus," Danziger said with a disgusted look. He wiped his hand on his pants.

Devon turned back to Julia and carefully turned her head to the side to shine the light at the back of her neck. "Whatever it is, it's all over her neck. And she has a cut there, too." She frowned, suddenly uneasy.

"Well, we'll have to figure that out later. We need to get her out of here, and get all of us back to camp before more of those things show up," Valerie said, strapping Julia into the stretcher. She and Danziger lifted it, and with Devon's help, after a long struggle they were able to get her up to the top again. Rick reached down to help Devon up the last few steps, and then he raised his mag-pro again.

"See anything, Rick?" Danziger asked.

"Not yet," Rick said warily. "But I'm not sticking around to get a show. Let's get out of here."

Alonzo was waiting, rhythmically grinding his crutch into the ground in frustration. Tru was just behind him, trying not to be noticed. It didn't work.

"Tru, get your ass back inside!" Danziger bellowed.

"I just want to see how Julia is," she said, and she sounded frightened.

"I know," Danziger said, his voice softening. "I'll tell you as soon as we know. But for now, get back inside! Please." She gave him a defiant look for an instant, then turned and ran back to their tent.

Danziger shook his head, wondering where she'd gotten the wild streak from. _Yeah,_ he thought, _like you don't know exactly where_. He followed the rest into the med tent, where they'd moved Julia onto her cot. _She looks like hell_, he thought, and Devon must have thought the same, because she started wiping the blood away so she could see how bad the cut was.

It turned out to be surprisingly small, though there was already some nasty bruising around it and it was starting to swell. "Damned head wounds," Danziger muttered. "They always bleed like a stuck pig." _No wonder she looks so pale_, he thought, watching Devon press a gauze pad against it.

Devon ignored him, studying the diaglove. "Where's Melanie?" she said, looking around.

"Here," Melanie said, coming into the tent looking even more wide-eyed than usual. "Jesus! What the hell happened?"

"She took a header down a big hill," Danziger said.

Melanie gave him a bewildered look, then shook herself, and took the diaglove from Devon. She looked up after a long moment, and looked surprised at all the faces staring back at her. "Um, listen, this is gonna take me a while, okay?"

"You got it, Mel," Danziger said. "Everybody, out!" He herded everyone, including the vociferously protesting Alonzo and the surprisingly reluctant Valerie, out of the tent, leaving Devon and Melanie inside.

Melanie turned back to look at Julia and was relieved to find her looking back, though she looked pretty unfocused. "My head hurts," Julia said. Devon shot Melanie a worried glance. _She sounds a lot like Uly in one of his worse moments,_ Devon thought.

"I'll bet it does," Melanie said. "Time for you to earn your keep, Julia. You've got a concussion. Can I give you pain meds?"

Julia closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. "Not the good stuff," she murmured, clearly fighting to stay awake. "Ketoxidine."

"Roger that," Melanie said, grabbing a hypospray. She injected the medication, then sat back on her heels. "Now what?" she asked.

Julia sighed faintly. "Sleep," she said thickly, and her eyes fluttered shut again, though she continued to frown slightly.

"But you have a concussion!" Melanie protested, but Julia didn't answer. Melanie looked over at Devon, who shrugged helplessly. "Everybody knows you're not supposed to sleep when you have a concussion!"

"Scan…every hour," Julia said without opening her eyes, and this time even the frown relaxed.

Melanie looked helplessly up at Devon, who shrugged. "She's the doctor," she said quietly. "I guess that's the best we can do, at least as far as the concussion goes. What about the cut? And there's something on her neck, too."

Melanie frowned, leaning over to look at where Devon had pointed. "I'll scan it, but…" She shrugged. "Heavy-duty analysis is her thing, not mine. I'll have her check it out once she's up and around. As for the wound, that I can deal with," Melanie said, relieved to have something she could cope with. Devon left her to it, and went out to talk to the others.

"How is she?" Alonzo said before she'd even made it out of the tent.

"She'll be fine," Devon said reassuringly. "We got lucky. Just a concussion." She turned to look at Danziger, frowning. "What was she doing out there?"

Danziger shrugged. "Whatever it was, she ran into a Terrier. You weren't kidding about us getting lucky. That thing coulda killed her."

"Her?" Morgan snapped. "It could have killed all of us!"

"Shut up, Morgan," Alonzo snapped. His anger was about to boil over, and he had a killer headache on top of it.

"I will not!" Morgan said. He turned back to Devon. "You can't ignore this, Devon. Not only did she put herself at risk, but she endangered everyone in this camp. Maybe they came because she was out there!"

"That doesn't make any sense," Valerie said.

"Whatever happened out there, I will deal with it," Devon said emphatically. "When she's awake."

"And what about the Terrier?" Valerie broke in. "I'd say this qualifies as a first shot."

"We don't even know what happened yet," Devon said. "How do you know the Terrier did this?"

"Oh, come on!" Valerie said. "Don't be naïve!"

"And what exactly would you suggest we do?" Devon said patiently.

"I don't know! Go after it—!"

"In the dark? When we don't know how many of them there are out there?" Devon said. "Who's endangering the group now?" She shook her head. "No, we sit tight. Make sure we have extra people on the perimeter tonight, and we'll talk more in the morning."

Valerie still looked defiant, but finally nodded sharply.

"And speaking of the perimeter," Devon said, looking pointedly at Valerie, "I believe some of you are still on sentry duty?"

Valerie glared at her, but turned and headed for her post, and the others followed her.

"Alonzo," Devon said, noticing that he looked about ready to explode, "why don't you go in and help out Melanie? Julia said she needs to be scanned every hour. No sense in Mel staying up all night. You can take turns."

"Wait—she's awake!" Alonzo said, and suddenly his headache didn't seem so bad.

"She was, just for a minute," Devon said, but Alonzo was already limping past her into the tent.

Danziger watched him go, half-smiling. "Man, he's got it bad."

Devon snorted. "Yeah, well, so does she. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes before they admit it to each other."

Danziger grinned. "I'll go twenty on under six months," he said.

Devon grinned back. "I'll take that bet—there's no way Julia will go in less than a year. Too many trust issues."

"Yeah," Danziger said, but he wasn't smiling anymore. Devon looked hard at him for a moment, her smile fading, then nodded her goodnight and headed off for her tent, thinking as she went. Morgan had a valid point—Julia had absolutely no business being that far out of camp, and Devon couldn't think of a single reason that could explain it.

She hadn't been kidding about Julia's trust issues, either. It was a wonder any of them had gotten to know her at all. On the surface, she was friendly, if quiet, but she never seemed to let anyone get past the surface, except for maybe Melanie. _And in spite of that, I like her_, Devon had to admit to herself. Devon been rooting for Alonzo to break through the façade, but Julia had kept him at arm's length, in spite of her obvious attraction for him. But that seemed to have been changing in the last few days. _Maybe that's one way to get our answers,_ Devon thought. _If she won't tell us what's going on, it might be worth it to let Alonzo have a try._

* * *

"Hey, Mel," Alonzo said, coming into the tent.

Melanie looked up from bandaging Julia's forehead. "Hey, 'Zo." She smiled as reassuringly as she could. He looked about as freaked out as she felt.

"How's she doing?"

Melanie shrugged. "It looks like a pretty serious concussion, but the glove says her brain isn't swelling, at least so far. She didn't seem too concerned, but she was pretty out of it. I've done what I can so far. Now we get to wait."

Alonzo sighed, then turned and pulled up a camp stool. "I hate waiting."

Melanie snorted. "Join the club, flyboy. You want some coffee? I was gonna go get some."

"Yeah, that'd be great. Listen…" Alonzo started to say, faltered, then looked up and finished, "Uh…thanks, Mel."

"No problem, I was gonna get it anyway," she said with a smile, heading for the tent flap.

"That's not what I meant," Alonzo said.

"Yeah, I know," she said, grinning over her shoulder at him.

Alonzo smiled after her for a moment, then turned back to look at Julia. The bandage on her forehead looked huge, but even so, the bruising showed around the edges of it, especially down the side of her jaw. He bit back a twinge of fear, and leaned back. He knew she wasn't all that tall, but seeing her lying there on the cot looking so battered, he realized he'd never really thought of her as small before. "Damn it, Heller," he said quietly, "you're scaring the crap out of me."

She frowned slightly, turning her head toward him, and her eyes fluttered open.

He sat up straight and ran one hand through his hair. "Oh, jeez, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—" He stopped, realizing that she wasn't paying attention to him. She swallowed hard, and he wasn't even sure she'd heard his apology. She was looking over at something on the other side of the tent.

"Heller?" he said. She rolled to her side, trying to raise herself on one arm. "Woah, wait a minute, Heller," Alonzo said, struggling to his feet and putting his hand to her shoulder to keep her from getting up. "I don't think you're supposed to—"

"Shut up," she said hoarsely, "and get me a—" She didn't get the rest out. She did, however, get her dinner out, all over Alonzo's shoes.

"Wow," he said. "I've had that happen before, but I never expected it from you."

"Sorry," she said weakly, and wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand. "I tried to—"

"Hey, don't worry about it. Look, just stay there a second. Don't move," he said, and turned to grab a canteen off the table. "Here," he said, and held it for her to take a swallow.

She swallowed uncertainly, making a face at the acrid taste in her mouth, and he braced himself for another round, but she was able to keep it down, though she was breathing pretty hard. She swayed a little, and he helped her to lie back down. "Could you make it stop spinning?" she said, putting one hand over her eyes.

"Sure, soon as I get cleaned up, okay?" he said, grinning at her, then sighing when he realized she wasn't getting any of his charm at the moment.

"Just what the doc—" Melanie said, elbowing the tent flap open and coming in with two mugs in her hands. She stopped in mid-word, staring at Alonzo's feet. "What the heck happened?"

"She, uh—" Alonzo started to say, but Melanie was already setting the mugs on the bench and grabbing a hypospray. She grabbed a vial of something out of one of the boxes by the bench and then turned and injected Julia's neck.

"See," she waved the vial at Julia, who opened her eyes briefly to look at it. "Queasy-goo! I told you I'd remember it. Sorry, Jules," she said, realizing Julia was in no condition to appreciate the humor. "I should have known you'd have some nausea."

"That's an understatement," Alonzo said, looking with dismay at his shoes. "Listen, will you be okay while I go do something about all this?" he said to Julia. She didn't respond, her hand clamped hard over her eyes.

He glanced at Melanie, who waved him away, and he limped gingerly out of the tent.

"I know you keep saying you don't like him, Jules, but don't you think upchucking on him is a little harsh?" Melanie said after he'd gone.

"Shut up, Mel," Julia said quietly.

"Yes, ma'am, Dr. Heller, ma'am," Melanie said, mock saluting.

* * *

Devon stared at the ceiling of her tent, sighed explosively, and got up. It was still dark out, though there was a hint of pre-dawn glow on the horizon when she stepped out of the tent. She made her way over to where Danziger was standing watch.

"What's the matter, Adair, couldn't you sleep?" he asked, glancing sidelong at her.

"Yeah, something like that." She sat down on the fender of the ATV. "What was she doing out there, Danziger?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," he said. "She knows better than just about anybody how dangerous the Terriers are. Hell, I saw her face when she pulled that arrow out of Bill's shoulder."

"It just doesn't make sense," Devon said. "And if there's one thing I've learned about Julia Heller, it's that she doesn't do illogical. But this isn't the first time she's gone out of the camp without telling anyone. Valerie even came to talk to me about it the other day. I didn't think much about it before the Terriers showed up—I mean, we all need some time alone now and then. But since then?" She held her hands out, palms up. "What could have been so important that she'd take that kind of risk?"

Danziger considered that for a long time, looking out at the horizon. It was growing steadily lighter, which meant they didn't have a lot more time before they were going to have to deal with a bunch of questions from everyone else along those lines. "So what do we do about it?" he asked finally.

Devon sighed. "I don't know." She shook her head. "We have to ask her about it, obviously. I'll talk to her as soon as she's able. And if she won't give me answers, maybe she'll tell Melanie. Or Alonzo."

Danziger snorted, then turned to look intently at her. "Yeah," he said. "But what if we don't like her answers?"

She frowned, her lips pressed tightly together, then looked down at the ground, but she didn't answer.

_Yeah_, Danziger thought. _Me, neither_. He hadn't ever been able to read Heller well, but in spite of that, he'd grown to like her, and certainly to trust her. But last night's events had shaken that trust a little. There was a part of him that wished they could just let it all go, pretend it hadn't happened, but he knew better. Even if he'd been willing, Adair would never let anything go. _Damn_, he thought, chagrined, and glanced sidelong at Devon. _Just when she was starting to unwind a little_.

* * *

Alonzo woke up with a nasty kink in his neck. He'd fallen asleep propped against the side of the cot after the last scan, and now he was regretting not bringing in another cot like Melanie had suggested. There was a faint beep, and he realized the diaglove was reminding him it was time for another scan. He put on the glove, tilting his head to try to work out the kink in his neck, then scanned Julia, who seemed to be sleeping. Somehow, her sleeping look was different than her unconscious look, something he found surprisingly reassuring.

The scan was the same—still reading the concussion, but no swelling in the brain, and otherwise, just minor bruising and the cut. The bruising certainly didn't look minor to him. The whole right side of her jaw was purple, and her right eye was nearly swollen shut and equally purple.

"Don't worry about it, 'Zo," Melanie said quietly, and he jumped. She grinned at him, propped up on one elbow on her cot. "She looks bad right now, but she'll heal fast."

"Who's worried?" Alonzo said, and Melanie snorted.

"I am," Julia said quietly, opening her eyes and looking up at him. "You're still here. Why?"

"Come on, Heller," he said with a winning smile. "You know I'm crazy about you."

"Well, I'll believe half of that sentence," she said, shifted slightly on the cot, and winced. "Ow."

"Where does it hurt?" Alonzo said.

"Everywhere," Julia said with feeling.

"Cool. That should make the 'kiss it to make it better' part a lot of fun," Alonzo said.

"Will you shut up, Alonzo? You're about to make me throw up," Melanie said impatiently. "Here. You're probably due for another dose of ketoxidine." She filled the hypospray and injected Julia.

"Thanks," Julia said, closing her eyes again.

"Speaking of throwing up, how's the nausea?" Melanie asked.

"I'm fine," Julia said, though she said it a little too fast for Melanie to really believe her. She turned to fill the hypospray with another dose of queasy-goo.

"Too bad," Alonzo said.

Julia's eyes shot open and she frowned up at him. "What's that supposed to mean?" she said.

"Well, you know the old saying," he said.

Julia looked wary. "What old saying?"

Alonzo grinned. "If she pukes on your shoes, you know it's love." He was surprised when Julia didn't answer. And she seemed to be avoiding looking at him.

Melanie rolled her eyes. "Get a room, you two."

"Hey," Devon said, poking her head into the tent. "How's the patient?"

"I'll live," Julia said, grateful for the diversion. "Though I'd be better if this guy would go find a…" she faltered for an instant, groping for words, then finished, "…a black hole to walk into."

"I think that's your cue, Alonzo," Devon said, smiling at him, but he was looking appraisingly at Julia. "Alonzo?" she repeated.

"Yeah, sure," he said distantly. He grabbed his crutch and made his way out of the tent, still wondering if he'd misinterpreted Julia's reaction to his joke.

"Seriously," Devon said, turning to Melanie. "How is she?"

Melanie shrugged. "All of her scans have been the same—concussion, bruising, but nothing life-threatening."

"Good," Devon said, and she sounded relieved, but Melanie noticed she seemed a little edgy. "Listen, could we have a minute?" Devon added.

"Sure," Melanie said warily. "You want me to bring you some breakfast, Julia?"

Julia looked a little green. "Um, maybe later."

"Yeah," Melanie said, and came over and injected her with the queasy-goo. "That should help, at least as long as it isn't Rob doing breakfast this morning. I'll be back in a half hour."

Devon nodded at the unspoken question in Melanie's eyes, and turned to look at Julia as Melanie made her way out of the tent.

_Oh, no_, Julia thought, finally noticing the seriousness of Devon's look. _Not yet, I haven't had time to think of—_

"We need to talk, Julia. About what happened last night," Devon said, and she pulled up the camp stool and sat down.

"I'm sorry," Julia said, and realized she had to stall—there was no way she could come up with a plausible story when she was still so wobbly. "I guess I gave everybody a scare—even Alonzo."

"Well, I'm certainly willing to forgive you, if you can explain to me what you were doing out there on your own," Devon said gently.

Julia swallowed. "I…I'm not sure. Everything's a little fuzzy." _She's never going to buy that, _she thought, and she was right. Devon looked disappointed.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Devon said evenly.

Julia's heart started to pound, which only made her head hurt worse. _She's not going to let me off the hook_, Julia thought, and tried to think of something, anything, that could excuse her behavior. She frowned, as though trying to remember, and finally said, "I don't know. I remember dinner, and that godawful joke Danziger made, and then I came back to the tent. I think…I ran some tests on one of the plant samples Helen brought back from the last scouting trip, and then…" She trailed off, and shrugged. "I don't know. After that everything's a blur up until I woke up in the tent with Melanie." _God, my head hurts. Please, Devon, just let it go. __Please._

Devon nodded, started to ask another question, but was interrupted by a commotion outside. "Adair!" they heard Danziger call. "We got company!"

_Thank god_, Julia thought, then had another bad moment when Devon looked like she might ignore Danziger, but then she stood up and headed out of the tent without another word.

Julia sank back against the pillow, willing her head to stop pounding so she could think. _I have to come up with something better than amnesia_, she thought.

_Wait…did Danziger say company?_

* * *

"What is—?" Devon started to say, and then saw what Danziger was looking at. There was a Terrier standing about fifty meters away. It didn't appear armed, and it was holding its forelegs out in what she could only interpret as a peaceful gesture—the claw/thumb was curled in toward its body, but the rest of its fingers were open and facing upward. Even its weird antennae were tilted forward and down.

"What do you think?" Danziger said as she came up to him.

"I don't know," she said slowly. "Is it alone?"

"As far as we can tell," Danziger said. "Helen saw it first—she was on that rock over there and saw it come in from that little cleft in the hills."

"I couldn't see any others," Helen said. She was holding her mag-pro at the ready. "And it's not like they're small enough to really sneak up on us."

"I wish that were reassuring," Devon said grimly.

"God, what a weird looking thing," Rick said.

"How long has it been standing there?" Devon said after a long moment of silence.

"Maybe five minutes," Helen said. "It's definitely waiting for us to make a move."

"Well, let's not keep it waiting," Devon said, and started forward.

Danziger grabbed her arm before she'd gone two steps. "Are you nuts?"

"Look, we need to find a way to negotiate with them," Devon said patiently. "If they got together enough of them, or if they just kept at us long enough, they'll eventually kill us all, no matter how many of them we take out."

"I get that," Danziger said. "But—"

"I'll be careful," Devon said. "I'll stay a good distance from it, and you and Helen are in range to shoot if anything goes wrong."

"If anything goes wrong," Danziger growled, "you'll be dead before we get a chance to shoot. Those things move fast, Adair."

"I'm with Danziger," Helen said. "It's too risky."

"So what then? Do we just sit here and wait for them to kill us?" Devon snapped.

Helen looked helplessly over at Danziger, who gritted his teeth and finally let go of Devon's arm. "I swear to god, Adair, if you get yourself killed, I'll—"

"You'll look after Uly for me," Devon interrupted, and started forward again before Danziger lost his nerve. Or she did.

* * *

"Well, this is exciting," Melanie said, shouldering her way into the med tent with a tray of food in her hands.

"What?" Julia said, startled out of her whirling thoughts.

"There's a Terrier out there," Melanie said, setting the tray down on the camp stool beside Julia's cot, "and it looks like Devon's going out to talk to it."

"What?" Julia gasped. "No! She can't!" She started to get up off the cot, and Melanie grabbed her arms.

"Woah, hold it right there, you're in no shape to be—"

"No, Melanie, you've got to help me up," Julia pleaded, struggling to get to her feet. "I have to get out there."

"Why?" Melanie said, though she did help Julia to stand. "I mean, I know they shot Bill, but that one that Rob and Danziger and I ran into didn't do anything to us. And this one looks like it's trying to be friendly."

Julia stood swaying for a moment gripping Melanie's forearms hard as the world spun around her head again, but it steadied finally, and she looked at Melanie, blinking to try to get the two of her back into one. "It—she—look, I can't explain right now. I just need your help. Please!"

Melanie swallowed nervously, shaken by the near desperation in Julia's voice. "Okay, okay. Take it easy. I'll help you. But we're taking it slow, okay?"

Julia nearly cried in frustration at the slow pace Melanie set, but she knew she was likely to end up face-first in the dirt if she tried to go any faster. They got out of the tent and Julia could see Devon walking toward the Terrier. Julia felt a sudden sinking feeling. _God, I'm too late, she's almost there. _"Hurry, Mel!"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Alonzo said, coming up from behind them on one crutch. "Are you crazy, Mel? She shouldn't be up!"

"Tell her that," Mel said, holding tightly to Julia arm as she swayed off-balance. "Or better yet, give us a hand."

Alonzo grabbed Julia's other arm with his free hand. "What's going on, Julia?"

"There isn't time," she said through gritted teeth as the pain in her head flared up again. And there was something else leaking through the pain—regret, fear, frustration—

_Oh, god, it's happening again_.

She almost pitched sideways as Alonzo suddenly lost his balance. "What the hell is that?" he said shakily.

"What is what?" Melanie said, confused.

"You don't feel it?" Alonzo said incredulously.

"You do?" Julia said, relieved and horrified at the same time.

"Oh, yeah," he said, looking over at her. "It happened last night, too, right after you disappeared. But not like this." He winced.

"Will somebody please tell me what's going on?" Melanie wailed.

* * *

Devon walked slowly to within about fifteen meters of the Terrier, her hands carefully out in a palm-up gesture, and she tucked her thumb into the palm in an imitation of the Terrier's hands. "I just want to talk," she said, coming to a stop. "I don't want to hurt any of you."

There was no response, other than the weird antenna-horns tipping a little farther forward.

"Do you have any idea what I'm trying to tell you?" Devon said, trying to figure out some way of establishing communication, but there was no indication that the Terrier either understood her or had any way of saying something back. _What the hell am I supposed to do now?_ she thought.

She glanced back at the others and her eyes widened as she saw Alonzo and Melanie walking toward her slowly with Julia supported between them. Julia was looking past her at the Terrier, her eyes wide. "Devon, get back. Let me—" Julia started, and then winced. Alonzo staggered, dropping his crutch as he raised one hand to his head, and Julia went down to one knee, Melanie barely keeping her upright.

Julia suddenly felt the pressure in her head recede to an almost-bearable level, and felt a wave of regret. _It's apologizing for hurting us_, she thought wonderingly, and looked up. It was looking back at her, equally wide-eyed.

"Julia, what are you doing?" Devon said, skidding to a halt in front of her.

"Doc!" Danziger was yelling and running toward them.

"No!" Julia said. "No, it's okay! Tell him it's okay, Melanie!"

Melanie looked back at Danziger, who looked like he was ready to shoot the Terrier. "Stand down, Danziger, Julia says it's okay!" she yelled, and Danziger came up short, looking at her like she'd grown antennae-horns. Melanie shrugged. "Hey, I'm just telling you what she said. I don't get it, either."

"It's…sorry," Alonzo said, and Julia could hear the same wonder in his tone that she was feeling.

"What?" Devon said, looking baffled.

"Sorry, Devon," Julia said, almost laughing in relief, and lowered her other knee to the ground, though she was still holding onto Alonzo and Melanie. "I think it was shouting at the deaf lady, but now it knows we can hear it, so it's using its inside voice." Alonzo laughed, sounding as giddily relieved as she was.

"Hear what?" Melanie said, nearly ready to throttle Julia if she didn't explain fast.

"I think…," Julia began, then shook her head. "No…I know…it's an empath."

"Oh, yeah," Alonzo said with feeling.

"An—" Devon said, then whirled to look back at the Terrier. "You mean you're communicating with it?"

"Well, it's definitely communicating with us," Julia said shakily. "I have no idea if it's hearing us, too." That was followed by a wave of something Julia could only vaguely identify. _Something like approval mixed with confidence_, she thought.

"I'll take that as a yes," Alonzo said.

"Then…" Devon stopped, clearly processing this information. "Then when Uly said they were angry with us…"

Julia nodded. "He must have been feeling them, then. No wonder he was so terrified." She felt sick at the thought of the little boy getting the full force of anger she'd felt last night. That thought was followed by another wave of apology from the Terrier, then something different. _Defiance?_ Julia thought vaguely and looked over at Alonzo to see if he knew what it was.

He was looking up at the Terrier. "That wasn't you, was it?" he said, and Julia felt that same wave of approval.

"What wasn't him—her—it—whatever?" Danziger said. He was still holding the mag-pro ready, but he was no longer aiming directly at the Terrier.

"The Terriers that attacked us," Julia said. "Apparently, that was a different group. Or at least this one wasn't there. I'm not sure which."

"How is this possible?" Devon said, looking back and forth from the Terrier to Julia.

"I don't know," Julia said, her mind plunging ahead along all the biological possibilities. "Maybe some sort of bioelectric field created by brain activity. If—" She stopped, thinking back to try to figure out if there were clues to it in her earlier experience. "It happened to me last night—there was a Terrier who showed up when I—" She stopped short, suddenly realizing what she was about to say. The Terrier reared back, and Danziger swung the muzzle of the mag-pro back to point at it.

"Wait!" Julia said. "Don't—that was my fault—I scared it." _Damn_, she thought, _there goes the amnesia story._ Devon caught Alonzo giving Julia a weird look, but she couldn't tell what it was about. "Look," Julia continued, her voice wavering slightly, "I'll explain later. But right now, I think we need to focus on diplomacy."

Devon gave her a long, searching look, then finally nodded. "Later," she said emphatically, then turned to look at the Terrier. It had eased forward onto its middle legs again. "Tell it we come in peace," Devon said, and suddenly felt ridiculous for using those words.

Julia shook her head, at a loss for how to communicate that, but she didn't have to. The Terrier knelt on its mid-legs and it was like a bow. And there was no question it felt her relief—it looked at her and waggled its antennae-horns at her.

"Now what?" Danziger said. "Do we smoke a peace pipe or something?"

Devon looked over at Julia, who looked near collapse. She turned back to the Terrier, and put her hands out, palms up, again. "We are only trying to get to the west coast," she said, pointing west. "We have no plans to stay here. Can we trust you to leave us alone if we get out of here as soon as we can?"

"Devon," Julia said, "I don't know if we can give it that much detail. I—"

"No, I think it got it," Alonzo said. The Terrier was doing the bowing thing again, and gesturing toward the west with an open, palm up hand, its claw still tucked in against the palm.

"Thank god," Devon said. She smiled at the Terrier, hoping that it would associate the feelings of gratitude and relief she was trying to project with the facial expression.

The Terrier waggled its antennae-horns at her, then turned and galloped off at an alarming rate towards the hills it had come from.

"Well, that was unexpected," Melanie said.

Devon watched the Terrier till it was out of sight, then turned back to look at the others. "Okay, then, it looks like we at least have permission from one of the Terriers to pass safely. Let's hope that one spreads the word."

"And if it doesn't?" Danziger said warily.

Devon shrugged. "We'll just have to play it by ear. Let's keep our guard up, but the rules of engagement we've already established hold—and actually, I think I'd rather tighten them up. I don't want anyone firing unless I give authorization. Is that understood?"

Danziger nodded, and Alonzo looked relieved.

"Right," Devon said. "Now, Julia—"

"No," Melanie said, putting her hand up to stop Devon. "She shouldn't have been up yet. She's going right back to bed, and I don't want any backtalk from any of you."

"Yes, ma'am," Devon said, faintly amused by Melanie's sudden assertiveness. "I was going to ask Danziger if he'd carry her back."

"I can walk," Julia said defiantly. She'd managed to get to her feet with Alonzo's help, but she was swaying ominously.

"That may be true," Devon said skeptically, "but indulge me. Danziger?"

He grinned and handed his mag-pro to her, then scooped up Julia like she was light as a feather.

Julia was deeply embarrassed, but she knew if she were honest with herself, the prospect of making her way back to the med tent had been a daunting prospect. _I'd be fine if everything would just stop spinning all the time,_ she thought, frustrated. As it was, even the slight up-and-down motion she was getting as Danziger carried her was making her dangerously nauseous.

Apparently Alonzo noticed. "I'd watch your shoes if I were you, Danziger," he said, shooting a little smile at Julia as he limped along beside them.

"Huh?" Danziger said.

"Hang on, Jules," Melanie said. "We're almost there."

"I'm fine," Julia said, gritting her teeth, her eyes squeezed shut to try to keep the dizziness at bay.

"Okay, for future reference everybody, if Julia says she's fine, she's really, really far from being fine," Melanie said acidly, holding the tent flap back for Danziger. He lowered Julia gently onto the cot, and she lay back, immediately closing her eyes. "Out," Melanie ordered. "Everybody, out, now!"

Julia sighed in relief, both at the blissful lack of motion and at the reprieve from her impending confrontation with Devon. Her relief was short-lived, however.

"Look, Julia," Melanie said quietly. "I don't know what's going on, and I'm not sure I even want to. But I'm going to say this, and I hope you'll take it as it's intended." She paused, hoping Julia would look at her, but she kept her eyes shut. Melanie decided to go on anyway. "Whatever the fallout is from what happened last night is only going to get worse if you keep it to yourself. I trust you, but here's the thing—you've gotta trust us, too." She squeezed Julia's hand, then turned and left the tent.

Julia screwed her eyes shut, but now it wasn't the dizziness she was trying to shut away.

* * *

It took hours before everybody in the Eden Project was satisfied that they understood what had happened with the Terrier. Valerie had been deeply skeptical, but she wasn't the only one. Alonzo did his best to describe the sensations he'd felt, but he found himself having to explain it over and over to the point he was ready to scream.

Devon was almost as frustrated by the delay. She'd always hated confrontation, but she'd learned that putting it off only makes it worse. She wanted to get this whole thing with Julia over with so they could move on, but Melanie was standing guard over the med tent like Cerberus before the gates of the underworld. She refused to let anyone in to see Julia until she'd had at least eight hours of rest.

"Hey, Devon," Alonzo said, coming up, and Devon jumped. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you."

"No, it's okay, I was just woolgathering," Devon said.

"Listen, you got a second?" Alonzo said, and he seemed uneasy.

"Sure," she said, and followed him over by the ATV.

"Look," he said tentatively, "I don't know what's going on with Julia, but I think you need to know something. She didn't mention it, so I don't know if she got it, too, but…" He trailed off uncertainly, looking down at his feet.

"Got what?" Devon prompted.

Alonzo looked up at her, clearly troubled. "When we were…talking to the Terrier, I'm not sure, but…I think I might have been getting more than just his emotions."

Devon frowned, wondering why he'd put such emphasis on the pronoun. "What do you mean?"

Alonzo glanced uneasily over at the med tent. "Remember how Julia started to talk about what happened last night, and then she stopped herself?" he said quietly.

Devon nodded, trying not to let her impatience get the best of her.

"Well, I'm not sure, but…I think…I mean, I felt something, and the more I think about it, the more I'm sure it wasn't from the Terrier. I think it was from Julia," he said in a rush.

Devon considered that for a long moment, and suddenly she was hesitant to ask the obvious question.

"Devon, she was ashamed," Alonzo said finally. "Whatever she was doing out there, it was something she's not proud of. And when you looked at her, it was almost like I was in her head—she felt like she was letting you down, and she felt really bad about it. I know you have to ask her about it. I just…I thought…maybe you should know how she feels before you do."

Devon nodded, taking a deep breath to steady herself. "Thanks, Alonzo," she said, her voice rough. "I don't know if it helps me any, but I'm glad you told me."

* * *

Julia was starting to get stir-crazy. She hadn't realized how much she'd grown to love the open spaces in the few short weeks they'd been here, but being cooped up in the med tent all day with nothing to do had really brought it home to her. By mid-afternoon, her head had stopped pounding, and soon after that, the dizziness faded to the point that she could stand on her own. But Melanie was adamant that she not go out, and Julia got the distinct impression that it was more than her health Melanie was trying to protect.

_She's giving me time to think_, Julia thought grimly. _And that's the last thing I want now. God, I just want to get it over with._ But when Devon entered moments later, she had to resist the urge to bolt out of the tent.

"Ground rules," Melanie said to Devon before she could say anything. "No yelling," she said, ticking items off with her fingers, "no taking her out of this tent; if she looks even remotely bad, you call me immediately; and be nice."

Devon smiled faintly. "Agreed," she said.

Melanie turned to Julia, who had sat up when Devon came in. "And you, keep your blood pressure down, stay on that cot, if you feel at all bad, you call me immediately, and remember what I said before. Okay?"

Julia nodded silently, swinging her legs off the cot and leaning forward, her elbows on her knees.

Melanie looked hard at Devon, then left the tent.

Devon smiled after her. "She's taking this assistant doctor thing very seriously," she said. Julia didn't answer, so Devon pulled up the camp stool and sat down. Julia was staring at the ground, so Devon ducked her head to try to make eye contact.

"I know I screwed up, Devon," Julia said, glancing up at her for an instant, then looking back down. "I really am sorry—I didn't mean for things to get so out of hand."

"But they did," Devon said. "Julia, you have to tell me why you were out there alone."

_And there it is_, Julia thought with a sinking feeling. _The question I knew was coming, and I still don't have an answer._

Devon looked at her for a long time. The bruising along the side of her face still looked bad, though the swelling around the eye looked like it had gone down. Finally, Devon sighed explosively. "Have you been…communicating with the Terriers?" she asked abruptly, trying not to let her frustration show in her voice.

Julia almost looked up at her in surprise, but managed to stop herself just in time. _The Terriers?_ she thought wildly. _Where did __that__ come from?_ And then it was completely obvious to her. She'd been so worried they'd figure out she was communicating with the Council, but they didn't know the Council was here.

And this was the opportunity she so desperately needed. _They'll be angry with me,_ she thought, _but it won't be like it would be if they knew the truth._ Her mind raced ahead, trying to come up with a plausible response.

Devon was waiting for her to respond. Julia swallowed, then nodded her head resignedly. "Yes," she said finally. "But it's not what you think."

"Are you sure?" Devon said impatiently. "Because what I think is that you've been negotiating with the Terriers without consulting with us."

"No!" Julia said quickly, relieved that Devon's line of thought was exactly what she'd thought it would be. _Okay_, she told herself. _Stick to the truth as much as possible._ "No, it's not like that. What happened this morning—that was the first time I'd been sure we really could communicate."

Devon was looking skeptical. "So what have you been doing?"

"Trying to make contact," Julia said. "I thought they'd be more likely to…talk to me if I were away from the rest of the group."

"Jesus, Julia!" Devon said, standing up. The camp stool tumbled over behind her. "They tried to kill us!"

"No shouting!" Melanie's voice came from outside the tent, and Devon looked rebellious for a moment, then picked up the camp stool and sat down again.

"I know it sounds crazy," Julia said, "but remember how that one stopped right in front of me when Bill got shot? I think maybe it felt me somehow, and that's why it didn't shoot me. I'd been getting flashes of something I couldn't identify. It was like when you get a moment of anger that fades really fast, only it wasn't me," she continued, thinking back to the night before and trying to describe the sensation, "and it wasn't just anger. I got that sometimes, but most of the time it was more…benign."

"Why didn't you tell any of us?" Devon said, trying to keep her voice down.

Julia looked at her like the answer was obvious. "Devon, for a long time I thought I was having a schizophrenic episode. I spent a lot of time just running tests on myself to be sure I wasn't getting a brain tumor. Can you imagine what all of you would have thought if I'd just come out and told you everything?"

Devon looked chastened.

"But then, right before they attacked, Uly started feeling it, too, though mostly he seemed to get the emotions when he was sleeping. I started to wonder if there was really something else going on, but by the time I'd convinced myself there was, they were already on top of us," Julia said, letting a little frustration and regret creep into her tone. _I never thought I'd be grateful to my mother for anything,_ she thought bitterly, _but she certainly taught me how to lie._ "But after that, I knew I needed to find out more. And the more I tried, the more convinced I was that there were other Terriers out there, ones who hadn't been part of the attack. Like the one that Mel and Rob ran into when they went to help Danziger. I thought if I could make contact with them, that maybe I could prevent another attack."

"It was still a hell of a risk, Julia," Devon said, and Julia was relieved that she sounded more concerned than angry. "What happened last night…"

"I know," Julia said, and she let her real sense of shame come out. "I shouldn't have gone so far out. But I'd been feeling something nearby, and I was actually getting almost a sense of direction from it. And I was so focused on the sense I was getting from the one direction, I completely missed the second Terrier. Until it hit me full force with…" She broke off, remembering the overwhelming sense of anger, and her own terror. She took a breath, trying to calm herself. "I've never felt anything like it," she said truthfully. "It was really, really mad," and she almost laughed at how little those words conveyed the feeling. "And then there was a moment when I realized that it could feel me, too—I was scared, and it was glad." She shivered. "That's when I really tried to get away, but I didn't realize how close I was to the edge." She stopped, suddenly remembering what she'd felt right before she went over the embankment.

"What?" Devon said sharply.

Julia frowned. "I…I don't think that one really wanted to hurt me," she said, and as she said the words, she knew it was true. "Right before I fell, I think it must have realized I was about to go over the edge, and I felt panic from it, and right after that, it tried to grab me," she said, and reached up to feel the back of her neck.

"You had a nasty scratch there," Devon said, "and there was some stuff on your neck—something slimy."

Julia nodded. "I thought it was trying to…," she lowered her arm and shrugged. "Well, actually I don't know what I thought, but I tried to pull away. It must have scratched me with its claw trying to hold on to me, but I was able to break away." She laughed almost wonderingly. "I think it was trying to save me, and instead I jumped right off a cliff."

Devon shook her head. "But…why you?" she said. "Why hasn't anybody else—?"

Julia shook her head. "I don't know, Devon. I've been thinking about it all day—the three of us who have felt it so far are Uly, me and Alonzo. I've been trying to come up with commonalities between Uly and me for weeks, but…" She stopped. _There is one commonality between Alonzo and me,_ she thought suddenly. "Wait…there might be… Devon, Uly's been under sedation with methohex before, hasn't he?" she asked.

Devon blinked. "I don't know what it was specifically, but he's certainly been through sedation a lot."

Julia nodded as though that was exactly what she'd expected. "And I sedated Alonzo when I set his leg. And right after that, Melanie used it on me, when I—" She stopped, embarrassed to remember why Melanie had felt the need to knock her out. "Maybe the methohex somehow alters the brain chemistry in some way. It's not used all that often on the stations—I used it on Alonzo because it has a secondary effect as a muscle relaxant, and Melanie used his dose on me—so it's entirely possible no one else here has had it." _Maybe I should look up some of the research studies on methohex,_ she thought, her brain racing through all the possible avenues of investigation.

"So what are the signs? How will we know it's happening? I mean, in case someone else does start feeling it, too," Devon asked.

"Oh, you'll know," Julia said with feeling. "It feels like your head's going to split open, especially if they're…thinking hard at you. That's what I meant about the deaf lady thing. I think it was trying to make contact with you, so it was doing the equivalent of shouting at you."

* * *

Devon finally left Julia and headed back out to talk to the others. _This isn't going to be easy_, she thought, knowing full well there would be those who wouldn't buy the story.

Danziger saw her come out of the med tent and came over. "So, what's the verdict?" he said.

Devon grimaced. "She was trying to contact the Terriers," she said. "Apparently, she's been sensing them for some time."

"How?" he said.

"We don't know, but she thinks it might have something to do with the sedative she used on Alonzo when she set his leg—it was the one Melanie used on her, too. That would explain why Alonzo was feeling it, too."

Danziger shrugged. "Okay," he said. "I sure don't understand it, but okay. So what do we do now?"

"Well, that's a very, very good question," Devon said. "One I think is going to depend on how everybody else reacts to the news."

Generally, they reacted well, with the predictable exceptions.

"She was talking to the Terriers," Valerie said.

"Not talking to them," Devon corrected. "Trying to talk to them."

"Just help me a minute here," Valerie said. "Because I'm having a little trouble with this. She was trying to talk to the creatures that tried to kill us?"

"Yes," Devon said, trying to remain calm.

"The big, scary creatures with claws and weapons that shoot sharp objects?" Valerie said.

"Yes," Devon said.

"She was trying to talk to them?"

"Yes," Devon said, and remaining calm was dangerously close to going out the airlock.

"Valerie, knock it off," Helen said. "You'd have done the same thing."

"Really?" Valerie said. "I don't think so. I think I would have run down the middle of the camp yelling, 'Holy crap! Aliens are talking in my head!'"

"And anybody that didn't already think you were crazy sure would after that," Helen said harshly.

"Either way," Valerie said, glaring at Helen, "I most certainly would not have tried to talk to them by myself, especially not after they shot Bill!"

"She has a point," Morgan said. "It really doesn't make all that much sense."

"I didn't say it made sense," Devon said. "Julia had her reasons, and I can't explain them fully. But she was convinced that it was worth the risk."

"There's that word again," Valerie said. "That woman takes far too many risks, and she doesn't seem to give any thought to what happens if she dies."

"You're right," Devon said.

"What?" Alonzo said, frowning.

"Valerie is right," Devon said. "Julia has proven that she lacks a certain level of good judgment when it comes to her own well-being."

"So?" Alonzo said.

"So I think we need to lay down some ground rules for her," Devon said. "Look, I think we can all agree that it's pretty important that we keep her healthy, right?" She looked pointedly at Alonzo, who nodded. "So we need to give her some strict parameters—she doesn't leave the camp unless I authorize it, for one."

"And she doesn't get to be alone," Valerie said. "We can't let her go off by herself like she has been, and the only way to do that is to have somebody with her all the time."

"Oh, come on!" Alonzo said. "I didn't see you jump to make a bunch of rules for Danziger, and he's almost gotten himself killed twice."

"Hey! Only one of those was my fault. The other one was hers," Danziger said, gesturing with his thumb at Devon.

"It's a fair point," Devon said, ignoring him. "I think from now on, we don't send anybody out on scout alone."

"Don't go changing the subject," Morgan said. "We're talking about Julia here."

"What more do you want from her?" Alonzo said. "It's because of her we're able to communicate with the Terriers at all, and everybody seems to think that's a good thing! Shouldn't we be thanking her for that?"

"We could debate this all night," Devon said. "I think we'll leave it at not leaving camp without authorization and at least for now, she doesn't get to be alone. I want her to get the point that we're serious about this."

"Yeah," Alonzo said, glaring at her. "I don't think there'll be a problem with that."


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N: Sheesh, another nightmarish odd-numbered chapter. God help me when I get to 13. Anyway, this one has a lot of plot stuff. And for those of you wondering why Julia was so abysmally stupid in the last chapter, just bear with me. All shall be revealed._

Earth Two

Chapter 9

Julia walked along next to the Transrover, waiting for Melanie to notice what she was doing and demand that she go back to riding.

Melanie had been almost fiercely protective of Julia in the aftermath of the revelation about her contact with the Terriers. It would have been heartwarming if it hadn't been punctuated by angry outbursts and criticisms of Julia's ability to take care of herself.

The worst part of it was that Julia knew the anger—and the protectiveness—came from Melanie's fondness for her. _I don't deserve it_, Julia thought. _If she knew what was really going on, she'd be so disappointed._

The guilt Julia felt over lying, not just to Melanie, but to Devon and all the others, was almost overwhelming. No matter how she tried to justify it to herself, it still felt like she was betraying them. _If only I knew for certain who I could trust_, she thought. But until she did, she couldn't risk telling them the truth. _At least I only have to report if the opportunity—_

Julia frowned. She hadn't had the chance to really think about what Brendan had said before she fell, but now, there was something about it that bothered her. _He's been pushing me to report on everything, especially our location, and now he's worried I'll get caught. Why the sudden change?_

Not that she was complaining much. Even if she'd felt it was safe enough to try it, she had no chance get away from the camp to report, not with everyone watching her every move. She knew it wasn't really that bad, but it certainly felt like it. Especially from Valerie, who seemed to be somewhere close whenever Julia turned around.

_But why would Brendan suddenly be more concerned about me getting caught than—_

"Melanie's going to be pissed if she sees you walking again," Valerie said from behind her, and Julia stumbled, startled. "Are you okay? You're not feeling dizzy again, are you?"

"No," Julia said quickly. "I'm fine—you just scared me, that's all."

"So why are you walking again? Nobody's going to hassle you for it, not with Melanie ready to bite their heads off if they do," Valerie said with a sardonic smile.

_Because it's one less thing I have to feel guilty about, _she thought. "I got tired of riding in the 'rover," Julia said.

"You don't look so good," Valerie said, studying her face as they walked. "Is your head still hurting? I could go get something—"

"No," Julia lied. "My head is fine. I'm fine."

"Are you sure? Melanie's on her way over," Valerie said.

Julia groaned inwardly. "Maybe a sedative for her," she said under her breath.

Valerie looked at her sharply. "You are hurting, aren't you?" she said. "I was kidding about Mel, by the way."

Julia shot her a deadly look.

"Hey, word has gotten around how you operate, Dr. Heller," she said. "When you start saying things you'd normally keep to yourself, you're not doing so great."

"Julia!" Melanie said, coming around from behind the moving Transrover. "What the hell are you doing?"

Julia sighed. "Walking," she said, pointedly not turning around to look at her.

"Her head is hurting again," Valerie said.

"No, it isn't," Julia began, but she felt the hypospray inject before she had a chance to protest. "Damn it, Mel!" The headache started to fade almost instantly, but with the easing of the pain came a fuzzy, spaced-out feeling. "You used the hydrotere again, didn't you?"

"You said it was good for severe headaches, and was less likely than ketoxidine to exacerbate nausea," Melanie said reasonably. "See, I remember! And I'm even using all the big words."

"But it makes me so groggy," Julia said, and it was bad enough she was afraid she was slurring her words. "How much did you give me?"

"A minimum dose. You must be overtired. So why don't you go hitch a ride on the Transrover to sleep it off?" Melanie said, smiling sweetly.

Julia bit back the reply she wanted to make, and was proud of herself for maintaining that much control.

"Hey, Melanie!" Todd called from the cab of the Transrover. "Your tablet's making noise. I think it's picking up a signal."

Melanie trotted over and climbed up. A few minutes later she leaned out of the cab and gave a loud whoop. "We've got a supply pod!" she yelled. The caravan came to an immediate halt and everyone crowded around the Transrover. Melanie was studying her tablet intently, sitting with the door of the cab open. "Definitely south," she said, tapping on the tablet. "It's hard to tell how far, but I don't think it's more than fifty k."

Danziger whistled. "That's close! We could still find it today," he said happily. Melanie handed him the tablet. "C'mon, let's get going!" he said to Helen, and they ran for the rail.

"Hold it right there," Devon said. "I'm going with you." She turned and found Rick in the crowd. "Rick, you're coming, too. We may need the extra hands. Bess, would you look after Uly for me while we're gone?"

"Sure, Devon," Bess said. "I'd be happy to."

"The rest of you, keep going along the route we mapped out. We'll catch up with you," Devon said.

"Uh, Devon, are you sure you want to come?" Danziger said uncomfortably as they walked toward the rail. "Maybe we should bring Bill."

"Bill has barely gotten back on his feet," Devon said.

"Then Hardy," he said. "Or Todd."

"Danziger, if I didn't know better, I'd say you were scared to have me along," Devon said, smiling.

"Scared? Noooo," he said, his voice rumbling. "Don't be silly!"

Devon laughed. "Suck it up, Danziger. I'm coming. I can't let you have all the fun."

* * *

"Please let there be more tents," Toshiko said after the pod expedition left, looking up at the sky as they walked. "Please, please, please."

"See that thing there in the dirt?" Phoebe said. "That there is my self-image. Would you like to stomp on it again, oh, tentmate of mine?"

Toshiko stuck her tongue out at her, and Phoebe laughed.

"Don't let that sweet face fool you, Phoebe," Valerie said. "She complains about you snoring behind your back."

"I do not snore!" Phoebe protested, even as Toshiko exclaimed, "I never said that!"

"I am so naming the next river we come to 'The Nile,'" Valerie said.

"I know what I want," Bill said. "Another rail. Or six."

"Are you tired?" Toshiko said, and she sounded concerned. "Maybe you should hitch a ride on the 'rover for a while."

Bill shook his head. "We'll be making camp soon. I'll be fine."

"Don't argue with me," Toshiko said emphatically. "We're hours from making camp. Transrover. Now!"

Bill looked shocked.

"Who are you, and what have you done with Toshiko?" Phoebe said, equally surprised.

Toshiko looked embarrassed. "I…I just promised Helen I'd look after him," she said.

"Oh, that explains it," Phoebe said. "I wouldn't want to get on Helen's bad side, either. I'd do as she says, Bill."

Bill headed for the Transrover, muttering about bossy Amazons as he went.

* * *

They continued west for the rest of the afternoon, then finally set up camp as twilight approached. Valerie helped set up the med tent, and even though it was nice to have the help, it only heightened Julia's suffocating feeling of being watched all the time.

Melanie came into the tent shortly after Valerie left. "They found the supply pod," she said, beaming.

"Which one is it?" Julia asked.

Melanie shook her head. "Don't know yet. They ran out of charge about four klicks away, and they decided to camp where they were till morning. But they said it looks like it's intact. Oh, and I'm sorry I didn't come to help with the tent."

"It's okay," Julia said. "Valerie helped."

"Yeah, I saw," Melanie said. "That's why I'm sorry." She frowned. "What is up with her, anyway? She spends the first three weeks we're here avoiding you like the plague, and now..."

"I know," Julia said. "I wish I could figure it out. And I wish we could find a happy medium. I suppose this is better than barely concealed hostility, but not by a lot."

"Well, hopefully whatever it is, she'll get it out of her system soon," Melanie said, and then launched into a story about Rob, and Julia was about to scream by the time she finally climbed into her cot.

"Aren't you going to sleep?" Melanie said.

"I'm still working on this sample," Julia said. "It'll only take me a few more minutes."

"I've heard that before," Melanie said, but she didn't protest further.

Julia waited almost an hour, trying to work on another round of plant samples, but she simply couldn't concentrate on it. All she could think about was what Brendan had said—and why.

Finally, set down her tablet and glanced over at Melanie. She appeared sound asleep. Julia looked over at the hypospray and hesitated. _What if something happens?_ she thought. _What if we need her?_

_You have to do it_, she told herself. _She'll be fine._ She picked up the hypospray and went over and injected Melanie before she lost her nerve. _All you need is a few minutes._ She went back to her lab table, picked up her gear, and plugged in her encryption chip.

But this time after she activated the VR, she left the eyepiece flipped away. _Might as well see if I can do audio only_, she thought. _At least that's a little less risky than full VR._ "Brendan?" she said.

"What the hell happened?" his said almost immediately. "And why aren't you in here? I want to see you."

"I can't risk it," Julia said. "They're watching me almost constantly. I had to sedate my tentmate to do this much."

"Why?" Brendan said suspiciously. "And what happened last time?"

"I nearly got killed, that's what happened," Julia whispered. She explained as briefly as possible her encounter with the Terrier, the fall, and the subsequent negotiation with the Terriers.

"So you're in communication with them?" Brendan said. "How interesting." He didn't sound at all interested, though.

_You already knew they were empaths_, Julia thought warily. _Does that mean you've been able to communicate with them, too?_ The thought of Terriers working with the Council was a chilling one.

"So where are you now?" Brendan asked.

"I have no idea," Julia said. "I was unconscious for some time, and I couldn't very well ask how far we'd come and in what direction."

"Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter. My men have picked up your trail," he said.

Julia nearly gasped, and was immediately grateful she'd decided not to go into VR completely. There was no way she'd have been able to keep her expression neutral. "Really?" she said. "How far away are they?"

"I can't really answer that question without knowing where you are," Brendan said, and he sounded smug. "Don't worry. They'll find you. So, tell me, how is the Adair boy now? It's been quite some time since I got an update from you."

"He's still improving," Julia said, and she realized her irritation with Brendan had caused her to raise her voice slightly. "And I think I may know why." _What are you doing?_ one part of her asked, but she was tired of letting Brendan have the upper hand. _It's time to find out if I'm right about why he keeps asking about Uly._

"Oh, really?" Brendan said, and Julia could practically hear his raised eyebrow.

"I'm beginning to think Devon got it backwards," Julia said.

"What do you mean?" Brendan said warily.

"The conventional wisdom about the Syndrome was the neo-environmentalist theory—that it was something missing from life on the stations that caused the Syndrome. But what if it was the opposite? What if there was something present on the stations causing it?"

"You know as well as I do that Dr. Harrison's work was a dead-end, Dr. Heller," Brendan said coolly.

Julia's expression hardened. "That was a poor choice of words," she said. _And I must have hit a sore spot_, she thought, and smiled inwardly.

"Forgive me," he said, not sounding at all sorry. "My point was, none of the tests he did showed any kind of toxin, therefore it must be something on G-889 causing the boy's improvement."

"Of course," she said reasonably. "It's just a theory, and one I have no way to test."

"Then perhaps you'd better consider other theories that you can test, Doctor," Brendan said, and cut the connection.

The brief smile Julia allowed herself at the thought of having gotten under Brendan's skin faded fast as she thought about what he'd said. _How close can they be?_ she thought. _It must be fairly close, or he wouldn't have said anything, especially if he thinks I'm helping them_.

There was an odd sound from outside, and then Julia heard Todd yell for help. Almost immediately, there was a series of shots from one or more mag-pros.

_It __can't__ be!_ Julia thought, her heart pounding. She started for the tent flap, then stopped, looking over at Melanie. _Damn it_! she thought. She grabbed for a stimulant, slapped it into the hypospray, and started to inject her, then hesitated. The risk was small, but there was risk all the same. She threw the hypospray onto the table and ran out of the med tent. _Please__ let it be nothing_, she thought.

"What's going on?" Toshiko said sleepily, coming out of her tent with Valerie close behind.

There was another series of shots from the far end of camp, and Julia could see the flashes of the mag-pros. She ran towards them.

Todd was firing into the darkness, with Hardy next to him firing as well.

"Is everybody okay?" Julia said.

Todd fired a couple more shots, then shone his flashlight out into the surrounding landscape. There was nothing to be seen. "You saw them, too, right, Hardy?" he said, sounding agitated.

"Oh, yeah," Hardy said.

Julia almost said, "Who?" but stopped herself, even as Valerie jumped in with, "What? Was it the Terriers again?"

Todd shook his head. "More of those long-toothed things. Only this time, it was a pack of them. I didn't get a good count, but there had to be at least six or seven, maybe more. They came right up to the camp," he said, "bold as brass."

Julia let out a sigh of relief. _It isn't the Council_, she told herself. _And maybe this is an opportunity..._

"At least they took off when we started shooting," Hardy said.

"I don't like it," Julia said, looking out into the darkness. "One of them was dangerous enough, but a pack?"

"Why don't you try talking to them?" Valerie said. "It worked once, after all."

"Go to hell!" Julia said, whirling on her.

Valerie looked surprised. "I was kidding, Heller," she said.

"That's enough, both of you!" Toshiko said. "We need to worry about those animals right now!"

Julia glared at Valerie, then turned back to Todd. "They didn't attack you, did they?"

Todd shook his head. "They would have if I hadn't fired, though," he said uneasily.

"I think we should post more sentries for the night," Julia said. "If even one of those things got into the camp…"

"I'll go get Phoebe and a couple of the others," Toshiko said.

Julia had a bad thought. "Is Tru in with Bess and Morgan?" she asked.

Toshiko shook her head, and then looked nervous. "She's in her own tent, by herself," she said. "She didn't want to stay with anybody else."

"I'm going to go check on her," Julia said.

"I'll go with you," Valerie said tersely.

Julia ignored her and set off for the Danziger tent.

"Look, Heller," Valerie said, following her, "I really was just kidding."

Julia turned to look at her as they walked, frowning. "I guess I'm just used to you being hostile," she said finally. "It's hard for me to tell the difference." They arrived at the Danziger tent before Valerie could respond.

"Tru?" Julia called, and pulled the tent flap back. She wasn't in her bunk. Julia ducked back out, looking up and down the space between the tents.

"The Transrover," Valerie said, and headed for it. She pulled the door to the cab open and Tru yelped.

"Jesus!" Valerie said. "You scared the hell out of us, Tru!"

"Me!" Tru said. "You're the ones yanking the door open in the middle of the night!"

Julia laughed nervously. "Sorry," she said. "We just wanted to make sure you were okay. When you weren't in your tent, we got worried."

"I'm fine," Tru said. "What was all the shooting?"

"Animals," Julia said. "Nothing to worry about. But I want you staying in here for the night, okay?"

"And next time you decide to bunk in the Transrover, tell somebody!" Valerie said.

Tru glared at her, leaned forward and yanked the cab door shut.

Julia turned to head back to her tent, then hesitated. She turned back to Valerie, who looked like she was braced for something. "I'm sorry," Julia said. "I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."

Valerie looked surprised, then nodded. "It's okay, I deserved it. I don't always think about how I sound. It's just…" She paused, then continued in a rush. "Look, you scared a lot of people when you got hurt. What if that pack of animals had been around that night?"

Julia sighed. "I know—believe me, I know. It was a terrible mistake, one I won't be repeating."

"Good," Valerie said. "There are a lot of people who'd be very sorry if something happened to you." She turned and headed back to her tent.

Julia watched her go, bemused. _What brought that on?_ Julia thought.

Julia turned and went into her tent. Melanie was still sleeping peacefully. Julia looked at her, and her thoughts about Valerie fell away. She stared at her friend, feeling sick about what she'd done. _I can't sedate Melanie again. I __won't__. And I can't possibly leave the camp again_, she thought. _Valerie's right, it's far too risky, especially at night. I'll just have to hope that Brendan's men aren't too close._ But she knew her time was running out—sooner or later, she was going to have to tell Devon the truth. _Sooner_, she thought. _It's too dangerous—she needs to know. But how can I tell her? She'll never forgive me. None of them will._

* * *

"Well, would you look at that!" Danziger said early the next morning, looking at the cases containing two pre-fab geodesic domes. They took up nearly a quarter of the supply pod. "That's one less thing to worry about if we have to hole up for the winter."

"No kidding," Helen said, looking at the instructions on one of the cases. "These are both ten meters in diameter. We could house everybody in these if we had to."

"But how are we supposed to get it to wherever we hole up?" Devon said.

Danziger called up the pod manifest on the panel. "There's a trailer in here," he said. "Looks like your people had some sense when they packed. It's big enough to haul 'em both."

"But the rail sure isn't," Helen said. "We'll have to get the Transrover."

Danziger nodded. "Let's see what we can load up. There's another ATV in here," he said, reading off the list, "and a smaller trailer. So we can at least haul some of this back, and make for a smaller load next time."

Devon looked over his shoulder at the manifest and grinned. "I know two things we need to get on the first trip," she said.

"Tents and food," Helen said, grinning back. "It's going to be a much happier camp when we get back."

"Yeah," Devon said. "I just wish there were more of the food. But if we were only going to find this much, at least we got the good stuff."

"Come on, let's get loaded. The trailer's going to make this a lot slower going back," Danziger said. "We'll be lucky if we catch up to them by nightfall."

* * *

Alonzo rolled up in the ATV next to Melanie later that morning. "Hey, Mel, how's it going?"

Melanie shrugged, yawning.

"Jeez, late night?" he asked. "Did the shooting wake you up, too?"

"Shooting?" she said blankly. "Oh, the thing with the toothy things. No, I slept through it. But Todd told me about it this morning."

"Wow, you must have really been tired."

"I guess so," Melanie said, shaking herself. "Sorry, 'Zo. I'm a little out of it this morning."

"How's Julia?" he asked, glancing toward where Julia was walking next to the Transrover.

Melanie shrugged again. "She's had her head in that tablet all morning. Barely said two words to me." She smiled. "Maybe you should try talking to her."

Alonzo looked wary. "I don't know," he said. "I think I managed to get things back to where we can at least talk to each other, but..."

"Yeah, I know," Melanie said. "Better to take it slow. But you could maybe ask her about what she's so focused on."

Alonzo shook his head. "It'll look too much like I'm pushing her again," he said. "Nah, I'll just wait for PT tonight." He zoomed off in the ATV with a wave.

Melanie yawned again and trotted over to Julia. "Hey, Jules," she said. "Whatcha doin'?"

Julia glanced up, frowning. "Just following up on a thought I had the other day," she said.

"What's that?"

"I was talking to Devon about how Uly's doing," Julia said. "And as I was talking, I had an idea about the Syndrome."

Melanie's eyebrows rose. "Really? And?"

Julia shook her head. "I just don't know. I've been going over some data—"

"Who's Dr. Harrison?" Melanie said, reading over Julia's shoulder.

"He was one of the researchers working on the Syndrome," Julia said, her eyes dark.

That's when Melanie realized where she knew the name from. "Wait, was he the one who..." Melanie trailed off as she saw the sad look in Julia's eyes. "Oh...sorry, Jules."

"It's all right," Julia said. "Yes, he's the one who died in the lab explosion, he and one of the other researchers, Jamie Sinclair. I suppose I should be grateful he fired me before that, otherwise I'd have died, too."

"He fired you?" Melanie said, shocked. "Why? Do you think he was protecting you?"

"I hope not," Julia said.

"Huh?"

"If that's why he did it, then why didn't he fire Jamie, too?" Julia said. "No, it was something else."

"So, wait," Melanie said. "If he fired you, how did you get this data? Did you steal it?"

Julia shook her head. "I would have if I'd had the chance, but Harrison just sent me a comm message telling me not to come in again," she said.

"Dang, that's cold," Melanie said.

"Jamie was really mad about it. The first thing she knew about it was when he asked her to bring me some things I'd left at the lab. That's when she gave me this," Julia said, gesturing with the tablet. "It has all the files from the studies we'd done. She wanted me to keep working on it."

"I thought you hadn't gotten your tablet from the ship," Melanie said, frowning.

Julia nodded. "This is different—it was in my bag. Jamie disabled the wireless on it and made me promise to keep it with me, to keep it safe."

"Wow, paranoid much?"

Julia shook her head. "I don't think so—not when you consider that the lab explosion destroyed every bit of information they'd collected, except for this." She looked at the tablet. "Ever since I found out, I've kept this with me, just in case. Good thing, too, because I've been going through it trying to see if the idea I had holds any water."

"And?" Melanie said. "Any luck?"

Julia shook her head again. "At least not so far. I keep feeling like there's something obvious I'm missing, but I just can't see it. It has to be something that was present on the stations, but isn't present here."

"What makes you say that?" Melanie said, curious.

"Because Uly only really started getting better once we were drinking water that went through Rob's still," Julia said. "And since then, he's done nothing but improve. Virtually every symptom of the Syndrome is in remission now."

"That's great!" Melanie said. "So how hard is it to figure out whatever might have been on the stations that isn't here?"

"It shouldn't be that hard at all," Julia said. "Only I can't do it. There's nothing that shows up in the scans we took of the Syndrome children on the stations that isn't also present here."

"Nothing?" Melanie said.

"I know," Julia said. "It just doesn't make any sense. I've even gone through and looked at it the other way round, but there isn't anything here that wasn't also present in those scans."

"Well, knowing you, I'm betting you'll have it figured out soon," Melanie said.

"Melanie, I'm not really that—" Julia began.

"I didn't mean because you were smart," Melanie said, "though I assure you, you're smarter than you give yourself credit for. No, I meant because you're so darned stubborn." She grinned.

"Melanie, it's Devon," Melanie heard through her gear.

Melanie put one hand over the mic pickup and whispered, "Speaking of stubborn people." She grinned even wider at Julia's glare. "I'm here, Devon. What's up?"

"We're having to go pretty slow because of the load on the rail. I don't think we're going to catch up to you today," Devon said. "Why don't you plan on staying wherever you camp until we do catch up? We'll have to send the 'rover back for the rest of the stuff anyway."

"Sounds like a plan," Melanie said. "Listen, you might want to be extra careful keeping somebody on watch tonight."

Devon frowned, glancing over at Danziger. "Why?"

"We had some visitors last night," Melanie said. "Some of Julia's toothy-things showed up. Todd wants to call them hexadents."

"Please tell me he hasn't made pets out of them," Devon said.

Melanie laughed. "Hardly. I think he'd rather see them as trophies to display on the front of the Transrover after the scare they gave everybody last night."

"Is everybody okay?" Devon said.

"Yeah, but Todd and Hardy had to fire a few rounds to scare them off. The main thing that has us worried is that they were in a pack—six or seven at least. So I want you guys to be careful out there."

"Yeah, wouldn't want to have a hexadent," Danziger said, grinning.

"Tell them to keep Julia clear of them," Helen added. "She's already hexadent-prone."

Melanie laughed out loud, and glanced at Julia, who had gotten a little ahead of her as she'd talked. "I am so telling her you said that."

Devon groaned. "Can we please put a moratorium on naming things? It seems like the names we come up with are either stupid or punnable. Or worse, both."

"You need to get a sense of humor," Danziger said.

"I have one—it's just more sophisticated than yours," Devon said with dignity.

"Puns are a very sophisticated form of humor," Danziger said. "Ask Alonzo."

"Alonzo?" Devon said. "Since when does he know sophisticated humor?"

"Hey, his mom was a lit professor," Danziger said. "The guy's read everything."

"Really?" Devon said.

"I wouldn't ask him about it," Melanie said, stopping to make sure Julia got far enough ahead she could talk more freely. Not that it would have mattered—she had her head buried in the tablet again. "He's kind of embarrassed by it, actually."

"I really need to get to know our people better," Devon said. "I had no idea."

"You think that's weird, ask Todd why he joined the Eden Project," Melanie said. "You'll get a dissertation on Hobbes and Locke and 'man in the state of nature.' It's downright scary."

Devon was looking thoughtful. "Then I really need to tell him that Julia has a favorite poem."

"Who, Todd?" Melanie said.

"No, Alonzo," Devon said as if it were obvious. "It would give them something in common."

This time Danziger groaned. "Don't you start playing matchmaker, Adair. That sort of thing never works. And don't go thinking you can weasel out of our bet by interfering."

"He's right," Melanie said. "Trust me. Alonzo's doing just fine. And just in case you have any ideas, Devon, if you do try to get involved, I'll give Toshiko the go-ahead to try to get you and Danziger together."

"What?" Danziger and Devon both said at the same time.

Melanie grinned to herself. _Gotcha_, she thought.

* * *

They made camp a little earlier that evening so Devon and her team wouldn't have so far to go the next day, and they could get the Transrover headed back to the pod.

As Julia was finishing up setting up her lab table, Rob poked his head in the tent, looking slightly nervous. "Hi, Julia," he said.

"Hi, Rob," Julia said. "Did you need me for something?"

"I had a question about your synthlab," he said.

"Really?" Julia said.

"I was wondering if it's capable of synthesizing simple one-celled organisms," he said.

Julia raised her eyebrows. "One-celled organisms? Like what?"

"Well, like yeast," he said. "See, Melanie was talking to me on the way out to rescue Danziger last week, and she brought up my distillation process for cleaning our water. She was wondering—"

"If it could be used for making alcohol," Julia said, smiling. "I should have known. It would be either her or Danziger."

"He asked, too," Rob said, grinning. "So is it possible?"

Julia shook her head. "At least not unless the pod they found has the other half of the synthlab. Without it, I have to program the process by hand. I can do it for relatively simple compounds, but something organic would take weeks, maybe months, to figure out. And even once I had it, there's no guarantee that what I came up with would be safe to use for fermentation."

He nodded. "I remember there were issues with some of the homemade alcohols causing blindness," he said.

"That would probably be the easiest problem to deal with," Julia said. "There are ways to prevent toxic alcohols like…" She trailed off, looking thoughtful.

"Like what?" Rob asked.

Julia shook herself. _Something about toxins—not alcohols, but something else_. Whatever the thought had been, it was gone now, and she'd learned that the harder she tried to recover a thought like that, the less likely it was she would. _It'll come back_, she thought. "Like methanol," she said. "That's what would cause blindness."

"Good to know," he said. "So if we did find the other half of the synthlab, do you think we could do it?" he asked.

She nodded. "It should have several of the most common yeasts in its database," she said. "And if I can't find the right recipe in my databases, I'll bet Yale could find something in his."

"Well, I'll just have to hope we find it then," he said. "In the meantime, we'll just have to make our fun the non-alcoholic way."

"Something tells me that won't be a problem for Melanie," Julia said.

"Honestly, I've never met anyone like her," he said. "There's never a dull moment with her."

"That's putting it mildly," Julia said dryly.

He laughed. "Really, though, I'm so glad I came, in spite of everything. It was all worth it to meet her."

Julia looked at him curiously. "So how did you end up coming, if you don't mind my asking?"

Rob looked slightly embarrassed. "I…well, I saw Devon speak at a fundraiser," he said. "She really made an impression on me. She was so committed…so passionate."

_I see_, Julia thought, trying not to smile. It wouldn't have been the first time somebody got caught up in Devon's crusade because of her charisma. _Hell, I might not have applied if I hadn't seen her speak. No matter how good the opportunity of getting off the stations looked._

"So I started looking into the Eden Project, and I liked the idea behind it. I mean, it was a chance to be a part of something important. Something exciting." He shrugged. "Something a heck of a lot more interesting than being a water filtration engineer on the stations."

Julia nodded. "I'd say we all got more than our share of 'interesting' here," she said. But as she said it, his comment about being a water filtration engineer sparked something else in her mind.

Rob looked at her, frowning. "What is it?"

Julia looked up at him. "Could you tell me how the water purification processes on the stations worked?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Sure. Do you have a couple of weeks?"

She laughed. "Well, actually, yes, but I was hoping for the shorter version. How would the station processes handle things like heavy metal contamination?"

"Heavy metals?" he said. "Are we talking just the normally toxic ones like arsenic or mercury?"

"Not necessarily. I'm thinking things like the lanthanides or actinides, too," she said. "Neodymium, ytrrium, gasparanium—any of those."

He nodded. "Well, the process isn't perfect—in order to be completely free of that kind of contamination, you'd have to distill the water, and that gets expensive on the scale the stations need. Luckily, most of the cheaper processes do a really good job with the standard contaminants."

"Really good? How good is that?"

"Well, with arsenic, the standard is ten parts per billion, which is pretty thorough," Rob said.

"But arsenic has been understood as a dangerous contaminant for a really long time," Julia said. "What about some of the more recently discovered elements?"

"The Council set safe levels for most of those when the stations were set up. But the standard for gasparanium was set, gosh, I think it was forty years ago—pretty soon after they set up the Series Two stations. But the levels on that are set really low—like 1 part per billion. I don't think I've ever picked up even trace levels, let alone anything that exceeded the standard. What's this about, Julia?" Rob asked.

"I'm not sure just yet," she said. "But thank you. You've been very helpful."

Rob nodded, looking bemused. "Sure, any time."

* * *

"Tru!" Uly yelled, running after her.

Tru rolled her eyes, then turned around. "What is it, Uly?" she said.

"My mom said I could share my VR game with you," he said. "Do you want to try it?"

"VR game?" Tru narrowed her eyes. "This isn't some sort of math test disguised as a first-person shooter, is it?"

Uly shook his head. "It's about pirates," he said, grinning. "Come on, you'll love it!"

Tru hesitated. "Fine," she said. "But we're doing it in the Transrover. I don't want Yale telling us we have to stop."

This time Uly hesitated, but he finally nodded his head.

* * *

"You are not going to believe this," Melanie said, coming into the med tent.

Julia sighed inwardly. "What?" she said, hoping it was a short story so she could get back to reviewing Uly's scans.

"Bill just grabbed me and made me listen to his plan for telling Helen how he feels about her," Melanie said. "Oh, Jules, it was painful."

"That bad?" Julia said, imagining how awkward Bill could be.

"Oh, worse. His first line was, 'You're like gasparanium—the thing that makes fusion possible,'" she quoted dramatically. "That poor man. It's a good thing Helen already likes him."

Julia had a distant look.

"Julia?" Melanie said.

Julia held up one hand. "Gasparanium…" she said. "And the Series Two stations. But…"_ There __was__ something odd about the test results,_ she thought, and found the file. She called it up. Dr. Harrison had made Alex run it three times, and it came out the same every time. No gasparanium. Not even a trace.

_But gasparanium makes fusion power plants practical,_ she thought. _It should at least show up with some trace amounts in the water, no matter how good the filtration processes are. But it wasn't there. Why?_

_It's the dog that didn't bark_, she thought suddenly. Harrison had been convinced it was a heavy metal of some sort, but they hadn't been able to find anything in any of the samples they'd taken—air, water, food—it was in none of them. So Harrison had broadened the search to include other possible toxins, but with no luck.

Julia hadn't paid much attention to that part of the study at the time. Her position had been on the diagnostic side. She'd been running a series of tests on the Syndrome children, and gasparanium hadn't shown up on any of her tests, either. Not even trace amounts.

_I'm such an idiot_, she thought. _I was so focused on looking for what was there that I didn't notice what __wasn't__._

She pulled up Uly's file. Every test they'd ever run on him was here, and as she scrolled through them, on test after test, he showed not even the tiniest amount of gasparanium in his system.

But she hadn't run a full body scan for trace elements since they'd arrived here. She grabbed her diaglove and ducked out the tent flap.

"Julia?" Melanie said. "What's going on?"

"Valerie," Julia said as she came out of the tent. "Have you seen Uly?"

"He was with Tru earlier," she said. "I think they were headed for the Transrover. Do you want me to go see?"

"Yes, if you wouldn't mind," Julia said. "Bring him back here. I need to do a scan on him."

"Is everything okay?"

Julia smiled faintly. "It will be if I find what I think I'll find," she said.

Valerie gave her an odd look, then headed off toward Devon's tent.

Julia watched her go, thinking through everything again to be sure she wasn't overreacting. She looked up at the sky. It had darkened to a deep blue overhead, and the two moons were both at the tiniest sliver of crescents, but Julia barely noticed their beauty. _It has to be gasparanium_, Julia thought. _And wouldn't that just be ironic._

Julia heard a sound off to her left and looked over toward the Transrover. Valerie had Uly by the hand, with Tru following along behind.

There was a sudden flash off to Julia's right, and immediately after, the sound of a mag-pro firing came. "Get over here!" she heard Hardy yell. "Those things are coming in again! There's too many—" Another mag-pro blast overshadowed the rest of his words.

Julia started towards him, but as she did, she saw movement out of the corner of her eye between the tents to her left, right behind Valerie. Julia turned, and as she did, Valerie must have seen it, too, because she shoved Uly behind her.

"Tru!" Valerie yelled. "Get Uly into the Transrov—" The rest was cut off by a bizarre sound and one of the creatures bounded out from between the tents, headed straight for Valerie. She raised her left arm to ward it off, and its jaws clamped down on her forearm and hand. She screamed, falling backwards with the animal on top of her.

"Valerie!" Julia yelled, running towards her. She tapped the command prompt into her diaglove as she ran, watching Valerie struggle to keep the animal's claws at bay. "Laser cut!" she said, and pointed her index finger at the creature's eye and shoved her finger in up to the second knuckle. The animal jolted once, then abruptly stopped moving. Julia pulled her finger free, trying not to gag at the sensation.

Tru was still standing a few meters away, holding Uly against her. There was a flurry of shots from mag-pros. "Tru, the Transrover, now! There are more of those things around! Go!" Julia said. Tru hesitated, then turned and dragged Uly away.

Rob ran up and he grabbed the creature's head, trying to get it to let go of Valerie's arm.

"Get it off, get it off," Valerie moaned.

"We're trying, Valerie," Julia said. "Just hang on. Melanie!" she yelled. "Get me the med kit! NOW!"

"It won't let go!" Rob said, horrified. "It's dead, and it still won't let go!"

"Wait," Julia said. "I have an idea." She looked at the jaw of the creature. "Laser cut," she said again, pointing at a spot near the back of the jaw, carefully angling away from Valerie's arm. The smell of burned flesh wafted off the creature. Julia traded places with Rob and repeated the procedure on the other side.

"You got it!" Rob said as the jaws finally released. He started to try to pull them apart.

"Wait!" Julia said. "We need to make sure we don't do any more damage taking it out."

Melanie ran up with the med kit in her hand and knelt next to them. "What can I do?"

"Just hold on a second," Julia said, looking at the tooth that had pierced Valerie's hand. She used the laser to cut through the bottom of the tooth just below Valerie's palm. It was nearly a centimeter thick at that point, and it took some doing to cut through.

"God damn it, Heller, get it the hell off me!" Valerie said through gritted teeth.

"Okay, let's go. Carefully," Julia said, and helped Rob pull the remaining tooth out. She scanned the wound, and was amazed the damage wasn't worse. It didn't appear that any of the major tendons had been damaged, at least not irreparably, and only the third metacarpal had been broken, though it was nearly crushed. The radius had also been broken, but at least the tooth hadn't gone all the way through that one.

"Stop staring at it and do something!" Valerie snarled.

"That's it," Melanie said. She hit Valerie with a hypospray, and Valerie went limp.

"Melanie!" Julia said. "What the hell?"

"Hey, you're going to have to set the bones anyway, right?" Melanie said. "I just gave her a dose of methohex." She winked at Julia.

Julia gave her a withering look. "And you picked methohex because…?"

Melanie tried to look innocent. "It's what you used on Alonzo when you set his leg. Besides," she added after Julia gave her an even worse look, "you have to admit, if there's anybody who would benefit from being able to sense other people's feelings, it's Valerie." She glanced down at Valerie's arm. "She is going to be okay, isn't she?"

"Yes," Julia said, then turned to Rob. "Can you help me bring her into the med tent?" She turned back to Melanie. "Next time, wait till we get her moved. It's a lot less work for everyone."

Julia had to admit that it was easier for everyone, especially Valerie, that she'd been sedated. Cleaning the wounds would have been painful, even with painblock, and Julia wanted to be certain she'd disinfected as much as possible. She didn't want to find out the hard way that hexadents were the G-889 equivalent of Komodo dragons, with both a venomous bite and saliva so laden with bacteria it could kill within hours.

Luckily, it looked like that wasn't the case. Her scan of the hexadent showed no indication of either venom or dangerous infectious agents, but she wasn't taking any chances. She gave Valerie a heavy dose of immune booster once she'd finished cleaning and suturing the wounds.

"How bad is the hand?" Melanie asked, watching her finish.

Julia shrugged. "I think it'll heal okay, but it's hard to tell. We'll have to keep an eye on it overnight to be sure. I'd really rather not have to do surgery if we don't have to, but the bone actually splintered in spots, so it still might come to that. That thing has powerful jaws."

"It must have hurt," Melanie said, trying not to sound like she was glad.

"I have a feeling it would have hurt her more if Uly'd been the one bitten," Julia said, remembering the way Valerie had shoved him behind her. "Listen, I don't want to move her again tonight. Would you mind bunking with Tosh?"

"Sure," Melanie said. "They'll be wanting to know how she is anyway." She grabbed a hypospray and handed it to Julia. "It's already set with a dose of methohex. Just in case." She winked.

* * *

Devon and the others rolled in with the first load from the supply pod late the next morning. Melanie met them as they pulled up.

"Check it out, everybody!" Devon said. "We brought tents and a little bit of food, and there's more to come!"

"What kind of food?" Melanie said. "Please tell me there's something sugary!"

Devon grinned. "Better than that. There's chocolate! Not to mention coffee and tea."

Melanie smiled rapturously. "I could kiss you right now. Hard. On the lips."

"Sorry," Devon said, "You're not my type. Danziger will have to do."

Melanie turned to Danziger, who grinned and pointed to his lips. "Right there, sweetcheeks," he said.

"Rob, close your eyes," Melanie said and grabbed Danziger by the front of his shirt.

"Woah!" he said, pulling back. "I was kidding!"

"I wasn't," Melanie said, but she was laughing as she let him go.

"How are things here?" Helen said, climbing out of the rail.

"Exciting, as usual," Melanie said. "Devon, you're going to want to stop by the med tent. Julia has a story for you."

Devon frowned. "Everyone's okay, right? Uly?"

"Uly's fine," Melanie assured her. "But that's part of the story. Go on, we'll deal with all this, and I'll get everybody up to speed."

Devon nodded and headed for the med tent at a trot. "Julia?" she called, and ducked into the tent. Julia was sitting at her table, looking at a tablet. Valerie was lying on a cot, asleep, her right arm heavily bandaged. Devon frowned. "What happened?"

"She's going to be fine," Julia said quietly. "Don't worry. She got bit by a hexadent last night."

"What?" Devon said. "How? What happened?"

"That same pack came back," Julia said. "Come on, I'll tell you the rest outside. She needs to sleep." She led Devon outside.

"Melanie said something about Uly," Devon said. "Is he okay?"

"He's fine, thanks to Valerie," Julia said. "One of them got past the sentries. Valerie got between it and Uly, and it latched onto her arm."

Devon went white.

"Uly's fine, Devon," Julia said, grabbing her arm. "And so's Valerie. Tru got Uly into the Transrover right away, and none of the other hexadents got past the sentries. We ended up with four of them shot, so I'm betting the others will stay clear of us, at least for a while."

"How bad is Valerie?" Devon asked.

Julia smiled. "She'll have a scar to go with the story, but other than that, no permanent damage. I was afraid the third metacarpal—a bone in her hand," she added at Devon's questioning look, "might heal badly. The canine tooth went right through her hand. But it's looking really good this morning—between the boneheal vaccine and the osteomycin, her bones will be good as new, maybe even better, by tomorrow. The muscles and tendons will take a little longer, but everything looks like it's healing just fine."

Devon sighed in relief.

"Yeah," Julia said. "That's about how I felt last night. She was really something, Devon."

"Let me know as soon as she's awake," Devon said.

Julia nodded and ducked back into the tent. Valerie hadn't moved, so Julia turned back to her tablet. She'd finally gotten to scan Uly earlier in the morning, but the scan still showed no trace of gasparanium.

_This is crazy_, she thought. _There is no way there isn't at least a measurable trace of it in him. It just doesn't make any sense._ She turned to look at her diaglove uneasily. She hooked it up to the tablet and ran a full diagnostic. It came up clean. She leaned back and sighed.

"Hey, Heller," Alonzo said quietly, ducking through the tent flap. "What's the matter?"

"What?" Julia said, looking over at him.

"You look weird," he said. "What's going on?"

"I have…had a theory," Julia said. "But it looks like I was wrong."

"What theory?" Alonzo said.

"About what causes the Syndrome," she said.

"How do you know it's wrong?" he said.

"The scan I ran on Uly," she said. "It didn't show what I expected. It's…frustrating. I really thought I had it. Unless there's something wrong with the diaglove, which would be a little frightening."

Alonzo frowned, then smiled encouragingly. "You'll figure it out," he said. He glanced over at Valerie. "How's she doing?"

"What do I have to do to get a dose of painblock?" Valerie said, opening her eyes and looking over at him.

"Here," Julia said, grabbing a hypospray. She injected Valerie with a painblock. "That should help."

"Thanks," Valerie said.

"Alonzo, would you go tell Devon she's awake?" Julia said.

"Sure," he said. He smiled at Valerie. "I'm glad you're okay." He headed out of the tent.

Valerie looked after him for a moment, then turned to look appraisingly at Julia. "Why are you working on the Syndrome?" she said.

Julia blinked. "It's why I'm here," she said as if it were self-evident, "why I joined the Eden Project. So I could continue to work on it."

Valerie looked away, frowning.

"Why do you ask?" Julia said, but before Valerie could say anything else, Devon came in.

"Valerie!" she said, coming over to the cot. "I'm so glad you're all right. Julia told me what you did. Thank you."

Valerie looked uncomfortable. "All I did was get my arm nearly bitten off," she said.

"I'll let you two talk," Julia said, and ducked out of the tent.

"I think it was a little more than that," Devon said. "Uly says you put yourself between that thing and him."

Valerie shrugged. "I just…reacted," she said.

Devon shook her head. "You and Julia are more alike than you realize. Neither one of you knows how to say, 'you're welcome.'"

Valerie bristled for an instant, then looked embarrassed. "Fine," she said. "You're welcome."

* * *

Toshiko piled the last of her belongings into her bag and turned to gather up Valerie's things. She got out Valerie's bag and stuck it on her bunk, then started piling everything else next to it, sorting as she went.

"There she goes again," Phoebe said. "Making her little piles."

"I have a system," Toshiko said with dignity. "It works for me."

"Valerie just shoves everything in her bag," Helen said. "It's a lot faster, and it works fine for her."

"See," Toshiko said, grabbing a little case from under Valerie's bunk, "this is exactly why I'm looking forward to being in a different tent." She set the case on top of the "unknown" pile, then turned to start packing the bag. Clothes on the bottom, not that any of them had much to pack.

"Did you hear that there was a case of clothes?" Helen said, watching her. "It'll be coming up with the second load."

"Oh, to have a change of clothes!" Phoebe said. "I've been thinking about trying to sleep while walking—I think these coveralls would just keep going on their own."

"At least we're all in the same boat," Helen said, looking with dismay at her dust-covered pants.

"I just hope there's enough for everyone so it stays that way," Toshiko said. "I'd hate to have to do something like a lottery to decide who gets what." She grabbed another pile, but as she did, the little case slid off and fell to the ground. It popped open, and the contents spilled out. "Dang it!" Toshiko said.

"Here, let me," Helen said, kneeling down to gather up the contents. It was little odds and ends—a VR chip, a little handwritten note that Helen tried not to read, a gold ring with a pretty green stone, and an ornate printed invitation. "Jamie Sinclair and Valerie Carter cordially request your presence as they are joined together in matrimony…" There was a picture of Valerie with a petite blonde woman with striking green eyes and a splash of freckles. They were both laughing, their arms around each other. Helen frowned.

"What is it, Helen?" Phoebe said, coming over to look over her shoulder.

"I heard she was engaged," Helen said quietly. "Before she signed on with the Project."

Toshiko's head shot up, and her eyes widened as she saw what Helen had in her hand. "Helen—" she started to say.

"Who was?" Phoebe said.

"Valerie," Helen said.

"Really?" Phoebe said, sounding surprised. "I can't imagine who would put up with her."

"She's not that bad," Toshiko said. "She's always been really nice to me—and she doesn't make fun of my system. Helen, let me have that, please."

"I'm kidding," Phoebe said, grinning. "She annoys the heck out of me sometimes, and I don't understand her love/hate attitude toward Julia, but you're right—she's not that bad."

"She's pretty," Helen said, still looking at the invitation. "I wonder what happened."

"Some things are better not to know," Toshiko said sadly, taking the case from Helen. She finished replacing the contents with amazing care.

Helen looked over at her, frowning. _She__ knows what happened_, Helen thought, and wondered whether she should try to find out more.

* * *

Julia stepped out of the mess tent carrying a tray of food and started for the med tent, then paused as she saw Yale.

"Good morning, Dr. Heller," he said. "How is Ms. Carter today?"

"She's doing very well," Julia said. "The damage to the bones is healing better even than I'd expected."

"That is most excellent news," he said. "I'm very grateful to her for protecting Ulysses."

"Me, too," Julia said, and the reference to Uly made her pause. "Yale, you have an enormous amount of information stored in your system that I probably wouldn't have access to in my files, right?"

"Yes," he said, looking curiously at her. "Was there something you needed to know?"

"What do you have on gasparanium?" she said.

"It is a heavy metal, originally discovered on the asteroid Gaspar, hence the name. It is a fundamental part of the fusion plants that provide power to the stations—" He paused, a strange, faraway look on his face.

"Yale?" Julia said, frowning. "Is something wrong?"

He blinked, then looked back at her. "Wrong? No, nothing is wrong." He blinked again. "The element was first used in the fusion plants of the second generation of space stations, and it allowed their growth to the size and number that exist today. The franchise for the mining of gasparanium has been held by the—"

"The Heller family," Julia cut in. "I know that part. I'm wondering more about anything on studies relating to its toxicity, or to its incidence in environmental scans on the stations. Do you have anything on that?"

"There are no records relating to those subjects in my database," Yale said.

There was an odd tension in his voice, but Julia didn't notice it. "That doesn't make any sense," she was saying. "It's brought to the stations from the asteroid mines, it's processed on the stations, it's used in the reactors on the stations—there should be something, somewhere about it. Why isn't there?"

"I cannot answer that question," Yale said gravely.

Julia sighed explosively. "I just don't understand it," she said.

"I am sorry I cannot be of more assistance," Yale said, sounding more like himself.

"No," Julia said. "Actually, you were a great deal of help. Thank you." She smiled at him, then turned to head into the med tent. As she started in, Devon came out.

"How's our patient?" Julia asked.

"About like you'd expect," Devon said under her breath. "Cranky and annoying."

Julia hid her smile as she ducked through the tent flap. "Hi," she said once she was inside, smiling tentatively at Valerie. She set down the tray of food on the table. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Valerie said tersely.

"Is the painblock working?"

Valerie nodded.

"The arm is going to be fine," Julia said. "I've scanned it thoroughly—the bone has already healed significantly, and it's all looking great. You'll be able to use it at least a little by tomorrow."

"Good," Valerie said. "So when can I go back to my own tent?"

"I'd like to keep you here for the rest of the day," Julia said. "I want to be sure there isn't any sign of infection." She hesitated, then came over to the cot. "I brought you something to eat. And we're lucky—Todd's on the mess hall rotation this week, and he made some pretty amazing stew." She held out a bowlful of some sort of meat in a broth with some of the hydroponic vegetables.

"This isn't more of that tangaroo stuff, is it?" Valerie said.

Julia shook her head. "You seem like the kind of person who'd want to bite back," she said, smiling. "This is roasted hexadent."

Valerie looked up at her, surprised, then half-laughed. "Yeah," she said. "I could go for that. What does it taste like? Wait…don't tell me…"

Julia nodded, smiling. "Chicken."

Valerie took a bite. "Take that, you little bastard," she said, smiling fiercely.

"And you're a coffee drinker, right?" Julia said, handing her a mug.

"There was coffee in the supply pod?" Valerie said, grabbing the mug. "Oh, my god, caffeine!" She inhaled the aroma and groaned rapturously.

Julia turned and sat down at her table, staring at her tablet.

"Hey, as long as I'm here, I might as well be useful," Valerie said. "Let me take a look at your diaglove."

Julia turned to look at her, surprised.

"It's my job, remember?" Valerie said. "Eden Project's computer and electronics tech. If there's something wrong with it, I can figure it out." When Julia hesitated, frowning, she continued, "Come on, Heller. I want to be sure the thing you're using to keep me alive works right, okay?"

"Sorry," Julia said, handing her the diaglove.

Valerie settled the glove in her lap and awkwardly punched in several commands with her left hand. She studied the readouts. "You ran a diagnostic?" she said.

Julia nodded and handed her the tablet.

Valerie looked at it for a long time, then hooked it up to the diaglove and punched in some more commands. "That's weird," she said.

"What?" Julia said.

"Everything comes up clean, no software bugs, nothing," she said. "But there's something odd in the firmware." She looked up. "Listen, you've got a spare diaglove, right?"

"Two more," Julia said. "Though I'd rather keep them all functional."

Valerie nodded. "No problem—I just need to take this one apart so I can get at the firmware and see what's in there." She looked at her bandaged hand and frowned. "It'll take me a while—I'm going to need both hands for this. But I'll bring it back good as new."

"Sure," Julia said. "You should be able to at least have partial use of the hand in a couple of days." She hesitated. "Listen, thanks. I appreciate your help."

Valerie looked appraisingly at her for a long moment. "If you can figure out what causes the Syndrome…" She stopped, looking uncomfortable. "Let's just say that would go a long way with me."


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N: Ask and ye shall receive. Thanks for the fantastic reviews! In this chapter, I've thrown in some homages to some of my favorite movies and shows. I stole shamelessly from High Road to China, but there are more subtle bits here and there. There's the title of my favorite Battlestar Galactica episode, and a quote from a really, really obscure 80's British cop show. I might come up with some sort of prize for the person who can identify both of those. ;-) To any medical-types, I'm working without a net (no beta, let alone a medically-informed beta) on this chapter, so anything that makes you cringe, it's all my doing._

* * *

Earth Two

Chapter 10

Helen crept forward through the tall grass, keeping her head down. She froze, listening, and heard a faint bleat just ahead. She grinned wolfishly and shouldered her rifle. She started forward again very slowly…

And there was a loud crash behind her. She whirled, and saw Bill face-down in the grass. "God damn it, Bill!" she whispered. "How the hell am I supposed to sneak up on anything if you keep making so much noise?"

"Sorry," Bill said, struggling to his feet. He seemed even more uncoordinated than usual, which was saying something. _For such a good looking man, he's awfully clumsy_, Helen thought, annoyed.

She glared at him as he finally got upright, and he looked abashed. "Just stay there," Helen whispered, and turned to move forward again, hoping he hadn't completely frightened off the game. It was getting harder and harder to find the tangaroos as they got farther from the forest, and the hexadents had proven even more difficult to bag. _I hope we find something else edible and huntable soon_, she thought. _And preferably easier to catch than these idiotic jumping beans. Otherwise, we could be in a world of hurt._ The hexadent had certainly made a pleasant change, but it had barely made one meal for the camp, and that had been two days ago.

She crept forward, and the grass opened up into a wide clearing, with a muddy water hole in the middle of it. Helen froze, waiting and hoping to hear more bleating, but there wasn't a sound. _Hell!_ she thought.

"Anything?" Bill whispered barely audibly as he crept up next to her. He was being remarkably quiet for a change, but it was too little, too late.

"Not a god damn thing," Helen said bitterly. "But we might as well stick around. This is about the likeliest spot to catch something. If you can keep quiet!"

"I'm really sorry," Bill said, and Helen felt bad for being so hard on him. He looked really tired. It was his first trip out since he'd been shot, and Helen knew she'd been pushing him too hard. _We've been at this for four hours with no luck_, she thought. _Maybe we should just head back._ But the thought of returning to the camp with nothing to show for their efforts was more than her pride could bear. She knew that Julia was counting on her and Bill to add to the food supply—they really needed some alternate sources of protein, and not just because everybody was bored stiff by synthofu.

"Let's give it another hour," Helen said. "We'll hang back in the grass a little, and hope that something shows up." Bill looked relieved, and when they found a place to settle in, he almost collapsed to the ground.

"Are you okay?" Helen asked.

He nodded, breathing hard. "I'm just…a little tired, that's all."

* * *

"Oh, joy," Melanie said, looking at the goo that Phoebe was dishing into her bowl. "It's synthofu again! My favorite."

"Hey, at least you used to like it," Julia said, looking with dismay at her bowlful as they headed for one of the tables. "My mother had to doctor it with every sauce known to mankind to get me to eat it. The only thing that finally made it edible was when she served it with habanero sauce and pretzels. I'm amazed she tried so hard—" She looked almost sad for an instant.

"Pretzels?" Melanie said, baffled. "It's salty enough already, isn't it?"

"It's the texture," Julia said, looking slightly green as she sat. "It's not so bad when it's prepared so it's still a little…firm. But this…?" She scooped up a spoonful. "It just makes me gag every time. I almost wish the hexadents would come back."

"I have a feeling chomping on Valerie put them off humans," Alonzo said, sitting down next to them. Melanie laughed, but Julia looked uncomfortable. "As for food," Alonzo continued, "there are a lot of things I miss, but as long as we have coffee, I'm fine."

"Yeah," Julia said. "But we're going to have to start rationing that—there wasn't all that much in the stuff they brought back."

"Maybe there'll more in the second load," Alonzo said.

Julia shook her head. "Devon said they brought all the food in the first load. I wish there'd been some—"

"Stop, please," Melanie begged. "I've had this conversation three times in the last two days, and it's just about to kill me. We have to talk about something else—anything else."

"Okay," Julia said, and turned to Solace. "So what kind of name is 'Alonzo Solace,' anyway? It sounds like some lame VR romance hero."

Melanie nearly choked on her synthofu.

Alonzo looked sidelong at Julia. "Nice to know you think it's romantic," he said smoothly, leaning into her.

She glared at him. "Not even remotely," she said, but she was fighting back a smile.

"So you like your sauces…hot?" he said, dragging out the "h" and leering at her.

"Oh, god, will you stop!" Julia said. "I'm close enough to hurling already."

"Well, you know the old saying," Alonzo said, and Melanie grinned and said it with him: "If she pukes on your shoes…"

Julia rolled her eyes. _Trapped forever on a planet with two ten-year-olds_, she thought. _I should go sit with Tru and Uly—for some adult conversation._

"Hey, Doc!" Danziger said, poking his head into the mess tent. "We got a problem."

Julia exchanged glances with Melanie, and sighed. "Well, at least I get to skip the synthofu," she said, getting up.

* * *

"How long have you been feeling bad?" Julia asked Bill. He was sitting on her cot in the med tent, looking exhausted. Helen was hovering nearby, clearly worried.

Bill shook his head. "I'm not sure—I've had the headache for…maybe a day and a half? No, more like two days. I had it before I went to sleep night before last."

Julia was running the diaglove over him. His temp was 37.9—slightly elevated, but not enough to call it a fever. _Yet_, the worrier in her thought. _It was only a matter of time before we got some sort of crossover infection, no matter how good our immune enhancements are_. Blood pressure was a little high, but he'd just gotten back from a six hour hike. She couldn't see anything else obvious in the scan. "I'm going to need a blood sample," she said, setting the diaglove. Bill nodded, and she pointed the glove's index finger at his arm. There was a small whoosh, and she set the glove to analyze it.

"What other symptoms?" Julia asked.

Bill shrugged.

"Come on, Bill, you've been tired," Helen said.

He looked irritated. "I've been tired ever since I got shot," he snapped.

"Yeah, and irritable, too," Helen said pointedly.

He glared at her. "I have a pain in my neck," he said to Julia. "And I'm not just talking about her. I thought I'd just slept on it wrong, but it hasn't gone away."

Julia looked concerned. _That could be meningitis_, she thought. _Or the local equivalent_. She set her glove to take a spinal fluid sample. "Turn to the side," she told him. She put her finger to the back of his neck. "This may—" she triggered the sample "—hurt a little."

"Ow!" he yelped.

"Don't be such a baby," Helen said.

"Listen, Helen," Julia said. "I want you to stay in here with him for now. Who have you spent a lot of time with in the last three days?" she asked Bill.

"Everybody in camp," he said. "It's not like we have a lot of alone time here, y'know?"

"Who have you spent the most time with?" Julia persisted.

"My bunkmates," he said. "And this insensitive Amazon."

Julia nodded, and went outside. Devon and Danziger were waiting with Melanie. "What's the word, Doc?" Danziger asked.

"I have no idea at this point—I need to do some more analysis," Julia said evenly. "But I'm concerned that it could be contagious. I'm going to keep him and Helen in there for now. How soon will the supply pod team be back?"

"Probably the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow night at the earliest," Devon said. "It's slow going with the weight the Transrover's pulling."

Julia looked concerned. "I want you to stay in close contact with them. All four of them have probably been exposed to this. If any of them starts showing any symptoms at all, I need to know right away. Bill said his started with a headache and neck pain, then fever."

Devon frowned. "How serious is it?"

Julia shook her head. "I don't know yet, Devon. Just make sure that everybody stays clear of the med tent for now, just in case."

"What about you?" Melanie said, but Julia had already turned to go back into the tent. Melanie looked like she was about to go in after her, but Devon grabbed her arm.

"Melanie, don't," she said. "If it is contagious, she's already been exposed. You haven't, at least not much. We can't risk both of you."

* * *

Valerie walked toward the med tent, but Melanie headed her off. "Sorry," she said. "Bill's come down with something, and Julia wants to keep him isolated."

Valerie frowned. "Is it serious?"

"We don't know yet," Melanie said. "What did you need to see Julia about? Is it your arm?"

Valerie shook her head. "The arm's fine. I was going to give this back to her," she said, holding out a diaglove.

"What did you need that for?" Melanie said, perplexed.

Valerie shook her head. "I didn't—Julia was concerned there was something wrong with it, so I took it to work on it."

"Something wrong?" Melanie said uneasily. "Was there?"

Valerie nodded. "Not that it's that big a deal," she said. "All the main functions work just fine. But there's a subroutine built into the firmware that sets the glove to show zero for gasparanium whenever a scan picks it up."

Melanie's eyebrows shot up. "Why on earth—?"

Valerie shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine," she said. "But I think Julia might have an idea. Can you get it to her? Have her call me on gear if she wants to know more."

"Sure," Melanie said, taking the glove. "And thanks."

"No problem," Valerie said.

Melanie watched her go. _And we're back to the love side of the pendulum,_ she thought. _I wish I knew what to make of you, Valerie Carter._

* * *

Julia ran another scan on Bill, who was sleeping in his bunk. Julia had decided he'd be just as well off in his own tent—it was close to the med tent, and they could use it for an isolation ward if necessary. His fever had risen another half a degree since he'd come in, and she was starting to get concerned. There was nothing in any of the scans that could account for his symptoms—no obvious pathogens beyond the garden variety bacteria found in everyone's systems.

There were definitely indications of some sort of infection, though. His white blood cell count was elevated, and there were some odd compounds showing up in his bloodstream that could be waste products of some sort of pathogen. But so far, she just couldn't find it.

_Okay, he's getting worse_, she thought. _So you need to at least treat the symptoms to try to buy some more time._ She put together a cocktail of a fever reducer, immune booster, and painblock and injected him. Within fifteen minutes, his fever had dropped back to 38, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

Julia got up and went out of the tent. Melanie was sitting by the fire a few meters away. "Melanie," she called, and Melanie jumped to her feet and ran over.

"What do you need? Give me something to do," Melanie said.

"I need you to run a few scans—do yourself, Helen and a few others. I need something to compare Bill's scans to so I can figure out what this is."

"You got it, Jules," Melanie said. "How's he doing?"

"He's stable," Julia said, trying to sound unconcerned. "I'm pretty sure this isn't an airborne pathogen. If it were, given the close contact we're all in, we'd be seeing others showing symptoms by now. Especially since I had Bill on extra immune boosters after he got shot."

"Do you think it's related to that?" Melanie said.

Julia shrugged. "I have no way of knowing till I figure out what the pathogen is," she said.

"Gotcha," Melanie said. "I'll get those scans to you in a few minutes." She started off, then turned around. "By the way, Valerie brought this back," she said, showing Julia the diaglove. "She said it works fine, but there's…" She paused, trying to remember Valerie's exact words. "There's a subroutine in the firmware so when it reads gasparanium, it shows zero for it."

Julia's eyes went wide. "Really?" she said. "She's sure?"

"You can call her on gear," Melanie said. "But yeah, she seemed sure."

Julia tapped her upper lip with her finger, lost in thought.

"What's this all about?" Melanie said.

Julia looked up. "The Syndrome," she said. "But it'll have to wait. I need to focus on Bill right now. Get me those scans as soon as you can. Then I want you to monitor Bill for me. Be sure you keep gloves and mask on when you're in there, just in case." She turned and headed for the med tent.

* * *

"How are you guys doing?" Danziger said over the gear to Rick.

"So far, so good," Rick said. "All four of us feel fine. We're staying in the cab together, and Hardy and Todd are in the rail, and we're talking regularly over our gear, so we'll know if any of us starts to feel bad. We're making decent progress getting back to you. The Transrover doesn't show signs of overheating like you were worried about."

"Don't push it," Danziger said. "The last thing we need is the Transrover breaking down. Besides, as long as you guys are fine, you're probably better off where you are, at least till Julia figures out what's making Bill sick."

"How's he doing?" Rick said.

"He's not feeling great," Devon said, "but Julia didn't seem too concerned." _Yet_, Devon thought worriedly.

"Well, at the rate we're going, we should catch up to you by tomorrow night," Rick said. "Unless you decide to try to move on."

"No," Devon said. "We're staying put. Julia said she needs to have all her equipment set up to find out what's causing this. And I'm not about to delay her just to make a few more kilometers."

"Okay," Rick said. "And maybe some of the stuff we're bringing can help."

"Hey, just getting some new clothes will help morale," Devon said, smiling. "You guys keep your gear on, okay? I want regular reports on your condition."

"Yes, ma'am," Rick said.

* * *

Julia spent the rest of the night trying to isolate the pathogen, with no luck. Melanie kept her posted on Bill's condition, scanning him every hour through the night. His temperature was climbing again, though at least the fever reducer was slowing it some. But by mid-morning, it was at 38.7, and Julia was starting to get really concerned.

"Hey, Julia," Bess said, coming into the med tent. "How's it going?"

Julia rubbed her forehead tiredly. Her head ached, but she knew that was likely from lack of sleep. "Not so good," she said. "So far I can't figure out what's causing this."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

Julia sighed. "Melanie could probably use a break," she said. "She was up most of the night with Bill. Have her show you how to scan him."

"Sure," Bess said. "What about you? You look exhausted. Have you eaten anything?"

Julia blinked at her. "Um…no, not since…yesterday afternoon, I think." _That would definitely explain the headache_, she thought.

"I'll have Tru bring you something over," Bess said. "And then you should get some sleep."

Julia waved her hand dismissively. "I'm fine," she said. "I just need to figure this out. Once I do, I'll sleep. I promise."

Bess frowned, but didn't say anything more.

Julia turned back to her tablet. _I'm on a new planet, with completely new life forms. It could be __anything__ causing this_, she thought sickly. _How the hell am I supposed to find it?_ "Stop it," she told herself out loud. _Just eliminate all the possibilities you do know how to find first. Then look for anything out of the ordinary._

_Okay_, she thought, _you've eliminated standard bacterial and viral infections. Next on the list, prions. They're unlikely to cause these kinds of symptoms, but maybe some new form of protein misfolding-or at least what we'd call misfolding-could manifest this way. Maybe._

Tru came in a few minutes later with a bowlful of synthofu. "Thanks," Julia said, and made herself choke it down before she went back to work, knowing she'd be able to think more clearly if she did.

"Can I help?" Tru said, looking interestedly at Julia's tablet.

Julia shook her head. "But it'd be good to have you on call," she said, trying to think of some way for Tru to be useful. _I know I'd want something to do if I were her_. "In case Melanie needs something. Can you just stay close to Bill's tent for me?"

"Sure," Tru said.

"And check in on Helen," Julia said, remembering her as Tru started for the tent flap. "Tell Bess to stop in and scan her for me, and make sure she's getting plenty of rest."

Tru nodded and left.

Two hours later, Julia had eliminated prions, and was back to square one. _Now what?_ she thought. _Maybe there's some clue in those weird compounds showing up_, she thought. _If they are waste products, maybe there's a way to deduce the source._

_Dimethyl sulfide_, she thought, then dismissed it as too common. _Maybe the exoenzymes?_ She rubbed her eyes, then started running another series of tests.

* * *

"How's he doing?" Bess said, coming in to give Melanie a break.

Melanie looked worried. "His temp is up again," she said. "He's approaching 40. That's bad. His headache was a lot worse earlier, so I gave him a painblock, but I don't know how much that will help."

"We have some of those cooling packs, don't we?" Bess said.

Melanie looked confused.

"You know, for keeping stuff cold when you don't have power," Bess said.

"I don't know," Melanie said. "Why?"

"Couldn't we use those to help cool him down?"

Melanie looked thoughtful, then smiled. "That's a really good idea," she said. "I'll go see what I can find. Thanks, Bess." She headed for the mess tent.

Phoebe was working on dinner. "What can I do for you, Mel?"

Melanie explained what she was looking for, and Phoebe nodded. "We've got a bunch of them. I've been keeping them in the portable freezer in case we lost the generator. How many do you need?"

"Just a couple for now," Melanie said. "We'll have to rotate them, I guess. How long do they stay cold?"

"A couple of hours, depending on how hot the surrounding temperatures are," Phoebe said. "Be careful with them—they're pretty cold. I'd probably keep a cloth or something around them so you don't give him frostbite."

Melanie was carrying them back to Bill's tent when Devon stopped her.

"He's worse," Melanie said before she could say anything, "but Julia's going to figure it out soon. It'll be okay."

"Am I that predictable?" Devon said.

"No, it's just everybody's asking the same questions," Melanie said. "Listen, I'll let you know if anything changes, one way or the other."

Devon nodded. "Thanks, Melanie. And if there's anything we can do…"

"I have plenty of help," Melanie said. "Bess has been great, and Tru's helping out, too."

"Good," Devon said. "Just remember, there are a lot of us sitting around with nothing to do but worry. Don't hesitate to ask for anything, okay?"

"You got it," Melanie said, and headed back to Bill's tent.

Bess was right—the cold packs did seem to help. They at least were able to stabilize Bill's temperature at 39.5 for most of the evening. But as it got later, Melanie noticed that he seemed to be wheezing a little, almost like Uly used to breathe. She scanned him again, and frowned. There was fluid building up in his lungs. And his temp was back up to 40.

"Tru?" she called, and Tru stuck her head in the tent almost instantly. Melanie smiled at her. "Could you go get Julia for me?" she said. "Tell her Bill's having trouble breathing."

Tru nodded and ran for the med tent. "Julia?" Tru said tentatively. The doctor was sitting with her head cradled on one arm on her table. "Um…Julia?" Tru came forward and touched her shoulder.

Julia sat bolt upright. She turned to look at Tru, blinking. "What? What is it?"

She looked odd to Tru, but she couldn't figure out what it was. "I'm sorry," Tru said. "But Melanie was asking for you. She's worried that Bill's breathing isn't right."

Julia nodded. She turned and looked at her tablet, frowned, and then looked back at Tru, but it seemed to Tru more like she was looking through her. She rubbed the back of her neck, wincing.

"Julia, are you okay?" Tru said.

Julia nodded. "I'm just…I fell asleep," she said. "I'm sorry. I should have been working." She stood up and grabbed her diaglove off the table. She headed for the tent flap, but she couldn't seem to get it open. Tru reached around and pulled it back for her and she headed for the isolation tent.

Tru trotted along behind her, trying to figure out what it was that bothered her about Julia's behavior. It wasn't just that she was tired—Tru had seen her tired before. _There's more to it than that_, she thought worriedly. _If she's really that scared…_

Julia went into the isolation tent and Melanie looked up, relieved to see her. "He seems worse. It's like he's having trouble breathing."

Julia nodded, leaning over Bill and scanning him with the diaglove. His O2 sats were down, so much they were getting dangerously close to Uly's old levels. _Pneumonia_, she thought. But it had to be secondary, caused by the pathogen—everyone in the Eden Project had gotten full spectrum antivirals against every known form of pneumococcus. _Fluid buildup in the lungs_, she thought. _How do you treat that?_ She tried to remember, but even though she knew the answer, she couldn't seem to find it.

Melanie looked worriedly at her. "Julia?"

_I have to figure out how to deal with the pathogen. That's all I can do_, Julia thought, standing up straight. "Get him on oxygen," told Melanie.

"But…" Melanie said, clearly hoping for something more.

"Melanie, I have to get back to the pathogen," Julia said. "It won't do me any good to try to treat the symptoms when the cause is running rampant through his system. And I have to find it before—" She broke off, leaving the "before anybody else gets it" unsaid.

Melanie bit her lip, then nodded. "Okay," she said. "But what do I do—"

"Just do what you can to keep him stable," Julia said. "I'm working as fast as I can."

She turned away from Melanie as she said the last part, but Tru caught the guilty look that flashed across her face as she said it. She headed for the tent flap again, and Tru worried for a moment that she was going to have trouble with this one, but she did fine. She headed back to the med tent, and Tru followed her back.

Julia stepped inside the tent, went over to her table, sat down with her elbows on the table and put her head in her hands. _There has to be a way to isolate the pathogen that's causing this_, she thought. _But what? You've tried everything—it's just not there._

"Can I help?" Tru said.

Julia looked up, surprised. She hadn't realized Tru had followed her back in. "Um…" Julia said, and frowned. She couldn't seem to think of anything to say.

"Maybe you could use some coffee?" Tru said.

Julia nodded. "Coffee would be good," she said. "Thanks."

Tru dashed out of the tent.

Julia watched her go, then stared at the swinging tent flap for a moment. _I can't do it_, she thought, despairing. _I'm not going to figure it out in time_.

She shook herself. "You have to," she said aloud, and turned back to her tablet. _You have to—there's no one else._

* * *

Tru skidded into the mess tent. She grabbed the jug they'd been using for coffee from the table and looked in it. There was a dark sludge at the bottom that looked barely drinkable.

"Hey, kiddo, what's up?" Danziger said, following her in.

"I need coffee," she said.

"You hate coffee," he said, confused.

"Not for me," she said witheringly. "For Julia."

"Oh," he said. "Okay. Here." He grabbed a metal pot and filled it with water from the big plastic container. He set it on the little heating element and turned it on. "It'll be a couple of minutes," he said. "How strong do you think she needs it?"

"How strong do you need it in the morning?" Tru said.

Danziger raised his eyebrows. "That bad, huh?"

"Worse," she said.

"Okay," he said. "One batch of Danziger's Special Thermonuclear Coffee, coming up."

* * *

_God, my head hurts_, Julia thought, staring blindly at her tablet. _Of course it does_, she thought. _You've been at this for how long without sleep? Ever since the concussion, it hurts if you get too tired—you're supposed to take better care of yourself. You promised Melanie._

_But I did sleep_, she thought vaguely. _I fell asleep on the table_. She looked at the tablet chronometer. _For over an hour._ She frowned. _Oh, no…_

She grabbed her diaglove and ran a scan. 39.6. _I have a fever_, she thought. _A fever. But…I can't—the pathogen can't spread through normal contact, or we'd have all sorts of people down with it. And I haven't touched any of his fluids directly._

_It's from some other source_, she thought, and had a moment of panic. _If we get any more people down with this, I can't treat them. Not and try to find a cure at the same time. Melanie is already exhausted._

"What is it?" she said out loud. "It has to be something Bill and I have in common. Something we ate, or…" She shook her head. _Think about incubation period_, she told herself. _You're coming down with it three days after he first started showing symptoms. Three days. But—_

_It could have taken longer for him_, she thought. _I had him on immune boosters because of the injury from the Terriers. It could have been waiting in his system till the boosters wore off._ And then she knew the answer. _The Terriers—the stuff they found on my neck when I fell, it was from the Terrier who grabbed me. And I had a scratch on my neck. It could have been on the arrow they shot him with, too. That's twelve days for him, and seven for me…it makes sense_.

She felt an enormous sense of relief. _Thank god_, she thought. _It's not going to turn into an epidemic_.

_A lot of good that does you and Bill_, another part of her said.

"All right," she said aloud. "So now I just have to work faster." She grabbed a hypospray and dosed herself with the same cocktail she'd been giving Bill.

"Here's your hot coffee," Tru said, coming in, and Julia jumped, startled. "Sorry," Tru said, handing her the mug.

"It's okay," Julia said absently. "Thanks." She took a sip from the mug, still staring at her tablet. "Jesus!" she gasped. "What did you make this with—battery acid?"

"I figured you needed it strong, so I had my dad make it," Tru said, looking dismayed. "Did he make it too strong?"

Julia smiled at her. "No," she said, "no, it's fine. It just took me by surprise, that's—"

She stopped and got an odd look, and Tru frowned. "What is it?" she said, but Julia held up a hand to stop her.

"A bacteriophage," Julia said to herself. "Or this world's equivalent. And the stuff I've been seeing is just its waste products. Which could explain the pneumonia, too." She whirled to her tablet and brought up the scans she'd taken of Bill's blood. "Come on, you sneaky little bastard," she murmured. "Where are you?"

Tru stood quietly, trying to decide if she should leave, but something told her she needed to keep an eye on Julia.

"Come on," Julia breathed. "I know you're in there." She tapped in a command, and waited for the tablet to process. "Damn it!" She shook her head, staring at the tablet. "It has to be a phage, it's the only thing that makes sense." She thought of something and turned to Tru. "Go tell Melanie I need another sample of Bill's spinal fluid. Hurry!"

Tru ran for the tent flap. As soon as she'd gone, Julia grabbed her diaglove. "Spinal fluid sample," she said, and reached back to place the index finger of the glove on her neck. She winced as the glove took the sample, then ran it through the scan. "Download scan to tablet."

_And there you are_, she thought. It was so obvious now that she knew where to look, and what to look for—this planet's version of a virus, but one that hid inside common, normally benign bacteria and used them to produce copies of itself. _And if you're hiding in Bill's sample, I'll know for sure._

* * *

"How is he?" Helen asked Bess, who was sitting with mask and gloves on at Bill's side in the isolation tent.

"You're not supposed to be in here without gloves and a mask," Bess said uneasily.

Helen waved her hand dismissively. "I was with Bill pretty much non-stop for the last three days. If he's contagious, I'm gonna get it whether I'm in here or not. How is he?"

"Come on, Helen, you know the rules," Melanie said from behind her. "I'll tell you outside."

Helen gritted her teeth in frustration, but followed Melanie outside. "So?" she said.

"He's holding his own," Melanie said reassuringly. "His temp is pretty high, which has me worried, but Julia's trying to find out what's causing this."

"What if she can't?" Helen said. "We're on a completely new planet. What if it's something she can't fix?"

Melanie put her hand on Helen's arm. "You know how smart she is, Helen. She'll figure it out."

"Melanie!" Tru called, running up carrying a diaglove. "Julia said to get her a sample of Bill's spinal fluid."

"See!" Melanie said, taking the glove and then turning to grin at Helen. "I told you she'd do it!"

* * *

Tru came skidding back in, carrying Melanie's diaglove. "Thanks," Julia said, handing her the one she'd been using. "Take this back to her and tell her to monitor him for brain swelling." After Tru left, she downloaded Bill's scan results into the tablet, and they were identical to her own. She smiled fiercely. "All right, you son of a bitch, now I know what you are. All I have to do is find a way to kill you."

She shivered. She reached over and grabbed her jacket and threw it over her shoulders. She started the tablet running tests of every possible treatment she could think of, and hoped she could find the answer in time.

Tru came back in a little later and found Julia hunched intently over her tablet. Tru started to say something, then decided she'd better not interrupt. _I'll just stay here and if she needs something, I'll be here._

Two hours later, Julia was getting more and more worried. Nothing seemed to have any effect at all, except for some of the more extreme treatments she could think of, all of which would probably cause brain damage.

She turned around on her stool, rubbing the back of her neck gingerly. Tru was lying on her cot, asleep, and Julia had no idea when she'd come back in. She took a deep breath. "Okay," she said to herself quietly. "Start from the beginning. You're on another planet, so the stuff you brought with you is pretty much guaranteed to be useless. What did people do back before antibiotics?"

_Natural remedies_, she thought suddenly. _Things like tree bark extracts—that's how they came up with acetylsalicylic acid. But we have over fifty samples already, and that's a fraction of the plant life on this planet. It could take forever to find anything that could work!_

"Do you have any other options?" she said aloud, and thought for a long moment. "Right. Plant samples it is." She started testing the samples she and Helen had already analyzed, looking for anything that might have an effect on the phage.

* * *

"Hey, how's it going?" Alonzo said, coming into the tent just before dawn. Julia was sitting at her table, staring at her tablet intently. She had her jacket on, even though it was warm inside the tent. Tru was asleep on the cot. "Heller?" he repeated, coming over to her. She didn't show any sign of having heard him.

"Come on, damn it," she said under her breath. "Work this time."

"Heller?" he said, touching her shoulder. His fingers brushed the skin on her neck, and it was frighteningly warm, like she'd been standing by a fire for too long. "Jesus, Heller, you're hot!"

She looked up at him, smiling crookedly, and there were dark circles under her eyes, the skin around them pale. "You pick the weirdest times, Solace," she said, and her voice sounded lower than normal, and almost raw.

"No," he said, flushing, "I mean—"

She turned back to her tablet. "I know what you mean," she said, waving her hand. "I have work to do."

"Alonzo?" Tru said, sleepily.

"Tru, go get Melanie and bring her back here, now!" Alonzo said.

Tru's eyes went wide, and she scrambled to her feet and was out of the tent in a flash.

"Heller, you need to lie down," Alonzo said. "You're s—"

"I know what I am!" she snapped. "God, don't you think I know that?" She took a shaky breath. "But I don't have time. I have to find the answer." She shivered and pulled the jacket tighter around her.

"Melanie can—"

"It's here," she said, shaking the tablet. "I have it, all I have to do is isolate it. I just need a little more…" She rubbed her forehead, and reached for the hypospray.

"Wait," Alonzo said, grabbing it away from her before she could use it. "What have you been giving yourself?"

She turned to look at him. "I know what I'm doing, Alonzo."

Melanie came in, followed by Tru. "What is it?" Melanie said, frowning.

"Julia has it—she's burning up," Alonzo said. "And she's been dosing herself with this."

Melanie looked at the vial in the hypospray. "My god, Julia, you could have killed yourself!"

"What is it?" Alonzo said.

"It's just a stimulant," Julia said. "It's been helping me think. Look, I'm fine. I isolated the pathogen, and I'm trying to find…some sort of treatment. I had an idea—I know I'm close. I just—" She stopped, rubbing her temple with one hand.

"How long ago was your last dose of this?" Melanie asked, waving the hypospray at her.

Julia frowned. "Um…"

Melanie looked like she wanted to hit her. "How can somebody so smart be so abysmally stupid!" She ran her diaglove over Julia, and her face went white. "You're over 40!"

"It's okay," Julia said. "I've been giving myself the same treatment I gave Bill. It's been helping some."

"Helping?" Melanie said, horrified. "Julia, you are running a dangerously high temperature, in spite of fever reducing meds! And those stimulants you've been taking have your blood pressure through the roof. I swear, you are the worst patient in history!"

"Don't yell at me, Melanie," Julia said in a small voice. "I'll lie down in a minute, I promise. I just need to run one more test."

"But what if you've exposed someone else?" Melanie said. "Tru's been in here most of the night. You should be in isolation."

Julia shook her head. "It doesn't spread that way—I got it from the Terrier, when it scratched my neck. And Bill got it from…from…" She trailed off, trying to remember. It was important, the thing she had to remember. It was important. She shook her head. "You have to stop talking to me," she said. "I need to think." She looked back at her tablet, but somehow the symbols on it didn't make sense. She blinked, trying to bring them into focus, but it didn't help. "Melanie, I need you to tell me what this says," she said. "Can you read Latin?"

"Latin?" Melanie said, taking the tablet from her. It was showing the results of a lab test of some sort. A plant sample, it looked like, and— "Julia, are you testing local plants on the pathogen?"

Julia nodded, and she swayed slightly on her camp stool.

"That's brilliant," Melanie breathed. "But…there are so many possibilities. How many have you done?"

Julia blinked. "Um…I'm not sure—thirty-two, I think? No, thirty-three. This is thirty-three, and it—" She winced. "Why is it so loud in here?" she said.

"Loud?" Melanie said. She glanced worriedly at Alonzo.

"Julia, you really need to lie down," he said. "Come on, the cot's right over here." He tried to take her arm, but she pulled away.

"No," she said. "You don't understand, I have to finish it. Doctor Harrison is waiting. I was supposed to have it done already." She looked around. "Where is it?"

"It's right here, Julia," Melanie said, her tone suddenly gentle, showing her the tablet. "I'm going to finish it for you, okay? So you can rest."

Julia shook her head. "That's cheating. I have to finish it myself." She looked confused. "This isn't my lab." She stood up. "I have to go to my lab. It's quiet there."

Melanie nodded. "Okay, Julia. Alonzo and I will take you there." She looked at Alonzo. "Bill's tent," she whispered. He nodded, and took Julia's arm. "Tru, can you help with the tent?" Melanie said.

Tru ran for the tent flap and pulled it back.

"Okay, let's go, Heller," Alonzo said, guiding her out of the tent.

"It's dark," Julia said. "Why aren't the lights on?"

"Jesus, Melanie," Alonzo said, holding Julia steady as they walked slowly toward the isolation tent. "How bad is it?"

"Bad," Melanie said grimly, holding Julia's other arm.

"No, wait," Julia said, and she stopped short. "I'm supposed to report in. I'm late."

"You can report in soon," Melanie said, pointing toward the tent. "You did really well, Julia. You're almost there."

"But he's going to be mad at me," she said, and then looked at Alonzo seriously. "I don't feel very good," she said, and her knees buckled.

Alonzo caught her, scooped her up, and carried her the rest of the way to the isolation tent. Melanie held the flap for him, and he laid her on Rob's bunk. Only the gentle rise and fall of her breathing gave any indication she was even alive.

"Oh, no," Bess said, looking over, her eyes looking unnaturally large over her mask. "She has it, too?"

Melanie nodded. She ran the diaglove over her. "She does have the immune booster and fever reducer in her system still," she said. "There's not a lot more I can do at this point. Tru, can you keep a cold pack on her?"

"Sure," Tru said.

"And Bess, I'm pretty sure it's safe to go without the mask now. Julia seemed convinced it was spread through contact with Terrier fluids," Melanie said.

Bess pulled down the mask. "Good, this thing is uncomfortable."

Melanie turned to go.

"What are you going to do?" Alonzo said.

"I'm going to figure out what Julia was working on and see how close she was," Melanie said grimly. _And hope it was close enough I can finish what she started_. She ducked out of the tent.

Alonzo looked back at Julia, and hesitated, then decided there was nothing he could do to help Melanie. He pulled up a stool and sat down next to Julia, holding her hand.

Tru held a cold pack to her head, looking at Alonzo. "She'll be okay, Alonzo." She turned back to look down at Julia. She looked like she was dreaming. She was frowning, and her lips moved now and then.

"I can't," Julia said faintly, and Tru leaned forward.

"Julia?" she said.

"No," Julia said again, sounding agitated. "No, I won't tell—"

Tru glanced over at Alonzo and frowned.

"The canyon," Julia said, and her eyes fluttered open for a moment, but she wasn't looking at Tru. "South."

Her eyes closed, and she was quiet for several minutes. Tru switched out the cold pack, hoping the colder one would help, but when Julia opened her eyes again, she still seemed disoriented. She looked around, finally focusing on Alonzo's hand holding hers. She looked up at him. "They're coming, Alonzo," she said. "The Council. You have to get out of here before they come."

"It's okay, Julia," Alonzo said, unsure of what else to say. "The Council can't get to us here. They're light years away."

Julia shook her head vehemently. "No, they aren't! They're here," she said. "They'll be coming soon."

"I won't let anything happen to you," Alonzo said. "Don't worry. Just rest, Julia."

She didn't look reassured, but the conversation seemed to have taken too much energy. She subsided back into an uneasy sleep. But she held tightly to Alonzo's hand.

* * *

Rick and Rob rolled in a few hours later with the heavily loaded Transrover and Hardy and Todd in the rail right behind them. They'd been delayed slightly by a canyon that angled into the path they'd taken to catch up, which worried Danziger a bit. "We'll probably have to angle north to get around it," he told Devon. "Once we get on the road again."

Devon nodded. "But we'll burn that bridge when we come to it." She turned and headed for the med tent.

"Good news!" Devon said, ducking inside. Melanie looked up hopefully, and Devon realized she was hoping it was news about Julia and Bill. "Rick and the others are back, and they're all still healthy."

Melanie sighed in relief. "At least I only have two people dying," she muttered, and turned back to Julia's tablet.

Devon winced, knowing Melanie hadn't meant to say that out loud. "What can I do to help, Melanie?"

"Damn it!" Melanie said, running one hand through her hair. "Devon, I don't know what to do! She found something in this plant, but she was trying to isolate what it was that worked, and she hadn't been able to do that yet. I've gotten that much from her notes and the tests in her tablet, but—"

"Mel, there has to be something," Devon said.

Melanie looked at her, despairing. "Devon, I'm not a doctor. I don't even know where to start! They're going to—" She broke off, brushing hard at her eyes with the back of her hand. She turned back to Julia's tablet. "I'll keep trying," she whispered.

"Look, maybe Julia can still help," Devon said.

Melanie shook her head. "You didn't hear her, Devon—she's delirious. The little bit she's said hasn't made any sense at all."

Devon sighed. "And there isn't anything you can do to bring her fever down?"

"I've already tried everything I know," Melanie said, and she sounded so hopeless Devon couldn't bear to keep pushing her.

"Okay," she said. "You keep doing whatever you can to finish what she was working on." Then something occurred to her. "Maybe Helen might have some ideas, too."

Melanie looked surprised. "Helen! I hadn't even thought of that—of course!" She'd gotten so used to thinking of Helen as their scout and hunter that she'd totally forgotten her whole purpose in the Eden Project had been as a botanist.

"I'll go find her," Devon said, standing and putting her hand on Melanie's shoulder. "Hang in there, Melanie. I'll let you know if I get anything from Julia."

Devon found Helen sitting with Rick by the fire. She looked more tired than Devon could remember seeing her. "Any news?" she said, looking up hopefully.

Devon shook her head grimly. "Melanie's about at the end of her rope. Listen, Helen, Julia was working on some sort of local plant—there was something in it that seemed to inhibit the…whatever it is that's causing the sickness."

"A plant?" Helen said, perking up. "Why didn't she tell me?"

"That's exactly what I was hoping you'd say," Devon said, relieved. "Mel's in the med tent working on it. Can you give her a hand?"

"Are you kidding? I'd give my left arm to have something to do that could help!" She jumped up and ran for the med tent.

Devon watched her go, feeling hopeful for the first time since Julia had collapsed. She turned and headed for the isolation tent.

Tru and Alonzo were sitting by Julia. Tru was holding a cold pack to Julia's head and looking worried. Bess was doing the same for Bill, who looked even worse than he had when they'd brought Julia in. Julia looked like she was sleeping, but as Devon came in, she frowned and murmured something.

"How's she doing?" she asked Tru.

Tru blinked back tears. "She's really scared," she said. "She keeps having the same nightmare. The Council's coming to get us."

_The Council?_ Devon thought. "Why don't you get some rest, Tru? We'll take over for a while," Devon said.

"I'm not tired," Tru said, not lying very effectively.

_That's a first_, Devon thought. "Humor me," she said. "You can come back in two hours if you can't get to sleep, okay?"

Tru looked rebellious, but finally relented. "Two hours," she said, getting up and heading for the tent flap.

Devon took her chair and leaned forward. Alonzo held Julia's hand in both of his, looking worried. Devon turned the cold pack over—it was barely cool where it had been pressed against Julia's head. "Julia," she said quietly. "Can you hear me?"

Julia turned her head slightly toward Devon on the pillow, but her eyes didn't open. She was still frowning.

"Julia?" Devon tried again. "Come on, I need to talk to you."

"You have to go," Julia said, her voice barely audible. Her eyes fluttered open, and she looked like she was trying to focus on Devon.

"It's okay," Devon said. "I just need to ask you something."

"No," Julia said, shaking her head weakly. "You can't stay here. It isn't safe."

"Don't worry, Julia, you figured out that the pathogen can't spread from human to human from normal contact, remember?"

"No!" Julia insisted, and she was agitated. "You don't understand. You have to leave. It's all my fault!" She closed her eyes, and a tear ran down her temple.

"But you can fix it, Julia," Devon said, hoping this might be a way to get her to help. "You just have to help me." Julia frowned, and looked up at Devon, but Devon wasn't sure she was really seeing her. "Julia, do you know who I am?"

"You're Devon Adair," she said, clearly and with a hint of annoyance. Alonzo laughed shakily.

Devon smiled. "Good, that's good. Listen, Julia, you were working on something—Bill got sick, remember? And you found a plant that you thought could help him."

"Bill?" she said. She looked confused, then blinked, and for an instant she looked like she understood. "The plant—there's something…" She trailed off, shivering, and her eyes started to close.

"Julia, I know you're tired, but we need your help," Devon said desperately. "There's something in the plant. We followed your notes, but we don't know how to use it. What does Melanie need to do?"

Julia forced her eyes open, but she shook her head. "I don't know," she said, and she sounded like Melanie had. "It's there, but I don't—I couldn't—" She shook her head. "I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's okay," Devon said, and she patted her shoulder, feeling awful for making her do this. "You've done your best. It's okay."

"No, it's not," Julia said insistently. "I messed up—I should have told you. I should have said something the moment I knew, but I was so stupid! I thought I could do it by myself."

"Julia, it's okay," Devon said. "I understand—it's okay. Melanie and Helen will figure it out. Your notes really helped. It'll be all right."

"No!" Julia said, raising her head and looking at Devon, her eyes blazing. "Devon, you have to go!" Her head fell back against the pillow. "They were always going to kill her anyway. I should have known better." She shook her head weakly, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Another tear leaked out.

"Shh," Devon said, wondering what she was talking about now. "Everything's going to be okay."

Her eyes opened again. "Devon, please, you have to promise me," she said, her voice strong and clear, and she pulled her hand free from Alonzo and clutched Devon's arm with surprising strength. "Promise me you'll leave."

"I'm not going anywhere," Devon said. "You're going to be fine—we all will."

"Stop arguing with me!" Julia said raising her head slightly and shaking Devon's arm. "This is important! You have to keep going west."

Devon frowned. _West?_ "We're going to, Julia. I promise."

And that seemed to be enough for her. She sagged back against the pillow, looking relieved. Her eyes fluttered shut, but she was still frowning. A moment later she forced her eyes open and looked up at Devon. "I'm sorry," she said, barely audibly, "I'm so sorry. I should have tried harder. I should have…" Her eyes slid shut again, and this time her face relaxed.

"Just sleep," Devon said, her voice shaking, and she pulled the blanket up over Julia's shoulders. "It'll be okay." _God, Melanie, please make it be okay_, she thought.

* * *

"Maybe we're going about this all wrong," Helen said, leaning over the table and reading the results of the latest test.

"Of course we are," Melanie said tiredly. "Otherwise we'd have figured it out by now."

"No," Helen said, shaking her head. "Look, we know there's something in this plant that kills this bug, right? I mean, all the tests we've run show that—the only problem we have is we don't know what it is about the plant that's doing it."

Melanie looked at her, too tired to even ask where she was headed with this.

"Who says we need to know?" Helen said.

Melanie frowned. "What do you mean?"

"We don't have time to isolate whatever it is. Let's just dose them with the whole thing—just get a sample of the sap from the plant, inject it in them and see what happens," she said.

Melanie shook her head. "It's too risky—we have no idea what the effect will be—"

"But we know exactly what the effect of the pathogen will be!" Helen snapped. "Bill is dying, Melanie," she said, sounding desperate. "And Julia will follow, you know it. We're going to lose both of them."

Melanie looked down at the tablet helplessly. "But how much do we give them? And how—intravenously?"

"Okay," Helen said, "the tests Julia did show that a milliliter of the plant sap should kill the pathogen in about five times that amount of spinal fluid, right?"

Melanie nodded, and then looked like she understood. "So we extrapolate," she said, then looked nervous. "And we inject it into the spinal fluid."

* * *

"You're sure about this?" Alonzo said, watching Melanie and Helen getting ready to inject Bill and Julia. Neither of them had moved in the last hour, and Bill had taken on an almost gray look.

Melanie glared at him. "No, Alonzo, I'm not! But unless you have any better ideas—"

"Sorry, Mel," Alonzo said. "I'm—it's just—"

"It's okay, 'Zo," she said tiredly. "We're all wrung out. But this is all I've got. We have to try it."

"Do it," Devon said, nodding at them.

Melanie glanced over at Helen, who smiled a watery smile at her, and then turned and put the hypospray to the back of Bill's neck and injected it. Melanie watched, half-expecting something to happen on the spot, and then slapped herself mentally. She took a breath, then turned and tilted Julia's unresisting head to the side, brushed her hair away from her neck, and gave her the injection.

Apparently Alonzo was expecting something to happen immediately, too, because it seemed like he was holding his breath. "Look, 'Zo, nothing's going to happen for a while. It took something like ten minutes for the stuff to have an effect in the lab, and that was on a tiny sample," Melanie said. She looked over at Devon. "Why don't you both go get something to eat? It's been—what? fourteen hours?—since you had anything."

Devon glanced over at Alonzo, and knew he wanted to stay as much as she did, but she knew Melanie and Helen's nerves had to be on edge. _The last thing they need is us hovering over them. _"We'll bring you two something in a bit. Come on, Alonzo. Let's go."

Alonzo looked like he was ready to protest, but stopped when Devon put her hand on his arm. He followed her out of the tent. They headed over to the mess tent, and found Danziger inside. "Hey," he said. "What's the word?"

Devon held up her hands, shrugging. "They've come up with a treatment, but we have no idea if it'll work."

"It'll work," Alonzo said, his jaw clenched. "It has to."

Devon nodded, and Danziger handed her a bowl of the synthofu they'd been eating for the last four days. "Yeah, it has to," Danziger said. "We've gotta get Helen back out there—I completely suck at hunting, and I'm about ready to shoot myself if I have to eat this stuff for one more day."

"I might just be willing to see how you taste," Devon said wryly. "Hey, how's Tru? Did she get to sleep?"

Danziger grinned. "Oh, yeah," he said. "She was out like a light once I finally got her to lie down. Which took some doing. But she's dead to the world now."

"Good," Devon said, and took a bite of the synthofu and made a face. "Listen, I'm going to go check in on Uly. You," she said to Alonzo, "stay here. Don't go making Melanie and Helen nervous hanging over them, okay?"

Alonzo nodded, and sat down at one of the tables. Devon looked at him hard for a moment. "Jeez, Devon, okay!" he said, looking up at her. "I'll stay here."

Devon smiled at him, then left.

"You want some coffee?" Danziger said, and almost laughed at the face Alonzo made. "What? You don't like my coffee?"

"I wouldn't exactly call that stuff you make coffee," Alonzo said. "Besides, I've had I don't know how many cups already. I'm wound so tight, I think I'd explode if I had another one."

"Yeah," Danziger said, and he walked over and put his hand on Alonzo's shoulder. "Listen, man, she's gonna be okay."

Alonzo nodded sharply, but didn't say anything.

* * *

"Room service," Danziger said almost an hour later, shouldering his way into Bill's tent. "Anybody here need some hot, mushy, fake soy-product?"

Helen barely glanced at him from where she sat leaning over Bill, then she turned her eyes back to study the diaglove readouts.

"Oh, come on, it's not that bad," Danziger said, coming over to wave it at her. "You've gotta eat something—both of you," he said, looking over at Melanie.

She nodded tiredly, and took the bowl he handed to her.

"How are they?" he said quietly.

"No change," Melanie said. "I guess I should be glad they're not getting any worse." She looked like she was near tears.

"Helen?" Danziger said gruffly, turning back to her and holding out the bowl.

"Wait," she said, and there was a breathless tone to her voice that made Melanie look up sharply. Helen was holding the diaglove over Bill's chest and staring at it intently.

"What is it?" Melanie said, getting up and coming over.

"His temp went down—half a degree," Helen said and very unexpectedly burst into tears. Melanie set down her bowl and wrapped her arms around Helen.

Melanie looked over at Danziger. "You should go tell Devon and Alonzo," she said.

Danziger nodded, grinning at her. He set Helen's bowl down next to Melanie's and reached out and squeezed Melanie's shoulder. "You did good, Mel. You both did. Thanks."

* * *

It took Alonzo less than a second to bolt for the isolation tent when Danziger told him. _Now all we have to do is get the Doc to loosen up and those two might have a chance_, he thought, and was immeasurably glad that they would.

"Is everything okay?" Bess said coming up, looking nervously after Alonzo. "Is—?"

"It's great, Bess," Danziger said. "It looks like they found something that works."

"Oh, that's—" She stopped, took a breath, and then beamed at him. "That's wonderful!"

"You wanna go tell the others? A bunch of them are in the mess tent," he said. "I'm gonna try to find Adair."

"She's in with Uly," Bess said over her shoulder as she started for the mess tent. "I saw her go in a while ago."

"Thanks," he said, and headed over to her tent. "Adair?" he said from the tent flap. He pulled the flap aside when there wasn't a response.

She'd fallen asleep sitting on the ground next to Uly, her head cradled on her arm on the edge of his cot.

"Hey, Adair," he said quietly, trying not to wake Uly. She didn't move. He walked over and shook her shoulder gently.

She bolted upright and looked up at him, and he could see that she thought he was there to give her bad news. He knelt down next to her, keeping his hand on her shoulder. "Easy—it's okay. It's working—Bill's temp has gone down."

She grabbed hold of the cot to steady herself, the relief was so overwhelming. She took a second, not realizing that Danziger was still holding her shoulder, then got unsteadily to her feet. "And Julia?" she said.

"I don't know," he said. "I came as soon as Helen said Bill was better."

Her face clouded. "What if—?" she started to say, then broke off.

"Don't even go there, Adair," Danziger said, grabbing her shoulders and shaking her gently. "She's going to be fine."

Devon nodded, then swallowed, trying to get control of herself. _God, the last thing I want to do is break down in front of Danziger_, she thought. And then his arms were around her and he was holding her tight. "It's okay," he said into her hair. "They're going to be okay."

* * *

"I think she's waking up," someone said. "Julia?"

_No, I'm not waking up. I'm still too tired_, she thought. She turned her face away from whoever it was that was talking to her.

"C'mon, Julia, just—"

"Alonzo, she needs to rest. Just let her sleep," Melanie said somewhere nearby.

_Wait,_ Julia thought. _He's calling me Julia? He never does that. Unless—_ "What happened?" she said, opening her eyes. She turned her head and Alonzo was leaning over her, looking relieved. He was holding her hand tightly.

"Damn it, Alonzo," Melanie said. She leaned into view over his shoulder. "He's an idiot—go back to sleep."

"I was sick," Julia said, frowning, trying to remember.

"Yeah," Alonzo said. "Really sick."

"Which is why," Melanie said, swatting Alonzo's head, "I want you to go back to sleep. You are not out of the woods yet."

"Bill," Julia said suddenly, and looked like she was trying to sit up.

Alonzo put his free hand on her shoulder, holding her still. "Stop, you're not supposed to—"

"Julia, Bill is fine," Melanie said emphatically. "He's fine."

"But how—?" Julia said.

"You did it," Helen said, smiling at her from the foot of the cot. "It was your idea to look at local plant samples. We just took your work and ran with it." She reached down and patted Julia's leg. "Thanks, Julia. I owe you another one."

Julia shook her head. "I didn't—"

"Yes, you did," Melanie said. "But we're not going to argue about it now. Go back to sleep. Now! Don't make me sedate you, okay? You have made it abundantly clear that you won't take care of yourself, so I won't hesitate to do it."

"She's really mad at you," Alonzo said, grinning at her. "I'd do what she says if I were you."

"Okay," Julia said, and closed her eyes.

"Well, it's about time," Melanie said.

* * *

It was two days before Melanie would allow them to get on the road again, despite Julia's constant insistence that they'd be fine. By then, both Bill and Julia were significantly better. Bill was still having trouble breathing, but between Melanie and Julia, they were able to get him stable enough to move.

Julia seemed almost stir-crazy till they started moving again, but she still got tired fast. Melanie nearly had a fit when she came into the med tent to find she had fallen asleep at her table working on isolating the element in the plant that had worked.

She was still sleeping a lot once they got moving, which complicated things. Alonzo ended up trading places with Danziger and letting him scout in the ATV, while Alonzo took the rail and Julia sat beside him.

Alonzo ignored the knowing looks he got from just about everyone in the group on the first day when Julia fell asleep with her head on his shoulder. She didn't even wake up when he shifted his arm to put it around her shoulders. She just nestled into the hollow of his shoulder and put her hand on his chest. When Devon finally called a halt, she was still out. Alonzo looked down at her, hating to wake her.

"You stay there," Danziger said quietly, coming up. "We'll set up her tent, and then we can get her up."

"Thanks, man," Alonzo said quietly.

"You owe me," Danziger said, grinning.

"They're so adorable, I may vomit," Helen said a few minutes later to Bill, who'd just woken up himself.

"Shut up," Bill said, his voice still raw from coughing. "I think it's nice."

"You're such a mush," Helen said, helping him get down from the transrover and head toward his tent, which Rob and Rick had already gotten set up.

"It's why you like me," Bill said, grinning at her.

She glared at him. "Who says I like you?"

"Come on, Melanie said you cried over me," he said, smirking.

"I did no such thing!" Helen protested. "Besides, I was tired. And relieved for both of you."

"Uh-huh," Bill said dryly.

"You shut up, mister, or you can find your own way to your tent," Helen said warningly, but she helped him into his tent anyway.

A little later, Danziger came over and nodded at Alonzo. "It's all set up. You want a hand?"

"Nah, I got it," Alonzo said, ignoring Danziger's grin. "Hey, Heller. Wake up, kid. We're here."

Julia blinked, raising her head and looking around. "Already?" she said thickly, and apparently unaware that her hand was still on Alonzo's chest.

"Yep," Alonzo said.

"Oh," she said, and then she realized where she was, and sat up fast. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have—" she said, clearly embarrassed.

"No problem, Heller. You can drool on my shoulder any time."

"Oh, god, I didn't—?" she said, blushing deeply.

"I'm kidding," Alonzo said, grinning at her. "Come on, let's go to bed." Her eyes went wide, and Alonzo tried not to laugh out loud. "You pick the weirdest times, Heller. Me in my bed, you in yours."

"I'm telling you, Adair," Danziger said, watching the two from where he was helping Devon set up her tent. "Six months is a sure thing—I should've gone for four."

"Don't jinx it, Danziger," Devon said. "This is one bet I really want to lose."


	11. Chapter 11

_A/N: So we're quickly approaching the end of what I have written so far. I think this all stands on its own as a first season, but I have much more planned. And all the nice reviews have given me quite a bit of incentive to continue. :-) Just be prepared for there to be a long break once I post Chapter 12. It took me the better part of ten months to write all of this, so I don't want anybody to get their hopes up. Think of it as the ridiculously long hiatuses they do on SyFy. So, here's the other shoe dropping. One more chapter after this._

* * *

Earth Two

Chapter 11

Danziger's prediction about needing to turn north to get around the canyon Rick and the others had run into ended up being accurate. They had to track back into the foothills again, and it took almost two days.

"It's a good thing we headed straight west once we got past the first canyon," Alonzo said over the gear. "This thing runs to the southeast. It looks like it's headed right into that other one. If we'd headed south, we'd have had to track all the way back up here anyway."

"How far down did you go?" Danziger said.

"Not far," Alonzo said.

"Well, we're angling south again, so that should shave some time off your trip back," Danziger said.

He may have said he hadn't gone far, but it took him awhile to get back. Danziger wondered if he'd done it to get some time away from Julia. She seemed to be pulling away from Alonzo again, much to everyone's disappointment.

_That's probably why she's doing it_, Danziger thought, glancing up at her in the cab of the 'rover. _If she found out about the pool on her and Alonzo doing the deed, she'd put him on ice just to spite everyone._ He smiled. _Not that it'll matter—she fell for him ages ago, she just won't admit it to herself. Yet._ He forced his attention back to what he'd been doing before he got distracted by Julia.

"Okay," Danziger said, holding the handgun in front of him as he walked alongside the Transrover. "The first thing you need to know is that you never, ever point one of these at anything you don't want to kill."

Uly's eyes went wide.

"I mean that," Danziger said. "There are a lot of ways a gun like this can go off without you meaning for it to, and if it's pointing at something you care about, you'll never forgive yourself. Am I clear?"

"Yes, sir," Uly said, and Tru stifled a snort of amusement behind him.

"Okay," Danziger said. "Now, here's the safety. As long as it's switched this way, it should be safe. But can you point it at anybody when it's on like that?"

Uly shook his head.

"Right," Danziger said. "Because it's pretty easy to accidentally switch it when you're handling it, or it could even be faulty. There was a guy in my unit to got shot in the foot because the handgun he was supposed to clean had a bad safety switch." That was complete bullshit, but he wanted to be sure Uly got the message. "Okay, so the next thing you need to know—"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Devon said, coming around from the back side of the Transrover.

"Teaching Uly gun safety," Danziger said mildly.

"And you didn't think you needed to consult with me first?" she said, a dangerous edge to her voice.

_Uh-oh_, he thought, and Tru was giving him a look that said the very same thing.

"It's my fault, Mom," Uly piped up. "He was just teaching Tru, and I came over."

"Go find Yale," Devon said coldly. "You, too, Tru."

"But —" Tru began, but Devon stopped her with a look that could have frozen plasma. She followed Uly, looking back sympathetically at her father as she went.

"Look, Adair, it's a good idea to—"

"Shut it, Danziger," she said. "He's my son, and I will decide what is best for him. Am I clear?"

"Crystal," Danziger said, starting to get angry. "So can I teach your son gun safety?"

"Absolutely not," Devon said. "I don't want him anywhere near a gun."

Danziger shook his head. "That's a really bad call, Adair. Part of the reason I've been teaching Tru is that she's really curious about the guns. Better to teach them to be safe with them, and give them all the exposure they want so they don't sneak around—"

"Maybe your daughter might sneak around like that," Devon said acidly, "but my son knows better than to go against my rules."

"That's a low blow, Adair," Danziger said quietly.

Devon pursed her lips. "You're right," she conceded. "But I still don't want you talking to Uly about guns." She turned on her heel and stalked off after Uly.

Danziger watched her go, shaking his head and wondering if Tru could figure out a way to get around Adair's idiotic decision.

* * *

Valerie stood perched on the back of the ATV, cursing her luck. It had been three days since they'd broken camp after Julia and Bill had recovered enough to travel, but Melanie didn't want either of them out on scout yet.

Much to Valerie's dismay, having Bill out of the rotation again had the extremely unfortunate effect of pairing her with Morgan, and he'd insisted on driving.

And he was awful at it. He was constantly finding every rock and every pothole in their path, and Valerie felt like her teeth were going to jar loose at any moment. At first she'd tried to hint that he might want to find a smoother path, but that only seemed to make him more determined to rupture her spleen with his driving.

"Hold up," she called when she couldn't stand it anymore. "I want to take a look at that cleft over there. It looks like a possibility."

Morgan sighed and pulled the ATV to a stop. "You know, we could cover a lot more ground if you wouldn't keep stopping all the time," he said.

Valerie ignored him, clambering off the back of the ATV and using her monoculars to scan the hills in the distance. She took her time, covering every bit of the terrain.

"Well?" Morgan said impatiently.

"Hang on," Valerie said, and this time she wasn't just stalling. There was a cloud of dust rising from behind one of the hills. She hesitated, watching it for a few more seconds, then lowered the monoculars.

"What is it?" Morgan said.

Valerie pointed to the hills. "It looks like something's moving down there. Let's check it out."

"Check it out?" Morgan exclaimed. "If something's moving, we should be running away from it, not toward it!"

Valerie rolled her eyes. "Morgan, we're scouting. We're supposed to find out what's out there so the whole group doesn't blunder right into it. Now let's go."

Morgan muttered something under his breath as she climbed back onto the ATV, and Valerie occupied herself by imagining interesting ways to do away with the whiny bastard as they jolted away.

* * *

The trek into the foothills had made for a lot of scouting work, but it also provided a lot more game. The night before, Helen had been able to bag three tangaroos and a new creature they hadn't seen before. It looked like a six-legged giant rat, with a long tail that Julia suspected was prehensile. Amazingly, in spite of the off-putting appearance, the meat from the creature ended up being remarkably delicious.

After that discovery at breakfast, Devon insisted that she be the one to pick a name for the creature. "I'm not about to let somebody call it a ribeye rat or something."

"Ribeye rat it is," Danziger said, grinning.

Devon closed her eyes to a chorus of laughter, shaking her head. For the rest of the day, she'd had to put up with Uly running around her chanting, "Ribeye rat! Ribeye rat!" and giggling.

By mid-afternoon, Danziger wondered if it might be a good time to bring up gun safety training for Uly again. _If Uly keeps that up_, he thought, _she may welcome the opportunity for him to get shot accidentally._

"Hey, Tru," Danziger said, heading over to where his daughter was trying to be inconspicuous.

"Shhh!" she said. "Yale will hear you!"

"Sorry," he said, lowering his voice. "Listen, I need your help."

"You want to keep teaching Uly about guns," she said knowingly.

"Yeah," he said, feeling guilty already.

"And you don't want Devon to know about it," she continued.

"Yeah," he said, wishing his daughter weren't quite so clever.

"Bad idea, Dad," she said.

"Come on, Tru. This is important. He'll find out about guns one way or the other, and my way is—"

Tru shook her head violently. "That's not what I mean," she said. "I get why you want to do it, and you're right, but it's a really bad idea to go behind Devon's back."

"But she won't listen to me," he protested.

"And you think she'll listen to you once she finds out you lied to her?" Tru said.

"But—"

"Dad, trust me, I know these things," Tru said, and Danziger almost laughed at her worldly-wise expression. "Do not screw things up between you and Devon. I know you like her."

"What?" Danziger said, shocked. "What makes—I'm not—she's just—"

Tru put up her hand. "Come on, it's obvious. But if you want to keep pretending, it's no skin off my nose. But please, Dad, even if you just want to keep a good working relationship with her, don't do this."

Danziger sputtered for a moment, then sighed. "Okay, fine," he said.

"Besides, there's a much better way to get what you want here," Tru said knowingly.

"What's that?" Danziger said.

"Ask Yale to help. Devon will do anything he tells her."

Danziger blinked. _I'm an idiot_, he thought. _How the hell did I produce such a brilliant little girl?_

* * *

Valerie glanced down as the ATV began vibrating horribly under her feet as they neared the crest of a hill. "Hold up, Morgan!" she said, but the ATV was already rolling backwards.

"What the hell?" Morgan said, stepping on the brake. "Isn't Danziger supposed to be doing maintenance on these things?" He set the emergency brake and climbed out of the seat.

"He does," Valerie said, climbing down and craning her head to look at the engine. It didn't look like anything was obviously wrong, but she was no mechanic. "But there's only so much you can do when people keep driving them over every obstacle on the planet."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Morgan said.

"Oh, was I not clear enough?" Valerie said. "You're a really crappy driver, Morgan."

"I am not!" Morgan protested. "It's not my fault the shock absorbers on this thing are so bad. Maybe they're faulty! Like whatever just broke!"

Valerie knelt down and looked underneath the ATV. It looked like something was hanging down, but she wasn't sure what it was supposed to look like. _I should have Danziger give us basic maintenance training_, she thought. _All I'd have to do is tell everyone this story, and they'd be all over it. Anything to avoid being stuck with Morgan Martin in the middle of nowhere._ "Hey, Danziger?" she said after tapping her gear.

"What?" Danziger snapped, and Valerie's eyebrows shot up. _Wow, what bit him in the ass?_ she thought. "Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to yell."

"No worries," Valerie said. "We have a problem with the ATV."

"What problem?" he said.

"It won't go," Morgan said.

Valerie sighed. "It started vibrating really bad," she explained.

Danziger groaned. "Look underneath it," he said. He talked her through describing what she saw, and asked a few more questions, then sighed. "Yeah, sounds like the drive shaft went."

"That sounds bad," Morgan said.

"That's an understatement," Danziger said. "I can probably macgyver a replacement, or, better, repair it, but not out there. Sorry, but you're not going anywhere for a while. Let me call Rick and see how far out he and Rob are in the rail. I'll send them down to tow you back in."

"Wonderful," Valerie said under her breath after Danziger commed off. "I get to spend some extra quality time with one of my favorite people."

"I do not appreciate your sarcasm," Morgan said with dignity.

"Shut up, Morgan," she said. "You're giving me a headache."

* * *

After talking to Rick and Rob and setting them on course to pick up Valerie and Morgan, Danziger went looking for Yale.

Amazingly, Yale was very receptive to the idea. "It would be most prudent to train Ulysses in safety with firearms," he said. "He has been expressing a great deal of interest in them of late, and I should hate to see him injured when we could so easily avoid it."

"That's exactly what I thought," Danziger said. "But Devon doesn't want to hear it from me. So would you talk to her?"

"Certainly," Yale said.

"Just make sure you don't mention me when you do it," Danziger said, looking embarrassed.

Yale frowned. "I would be most uncomfortable with lying—"

"You don't have to lie to her," Danziger said quickly. "Just tell her that Uly's been asking about them, and that it would be better to get ahead of the problem. That's all true, isn't it? You're just not telling her all of the story."

Yale looked dubious, but finally agreed. Danziger grinned, walking back over to Tru and giving her a thumb's up. She grinned back, the "I told you so" oozing from her expression.

* * *

"God damn it, Morgan, if you don't stop that incessant tapping, they will never find your body," Valerie growled.

Morgan stopped the drum solo he'd been banging out on the ATV he was sitting in. "Sorry," he said. "It's just…drumming helps me relax."

"I don't give a damn if it gives you a —" Valerie broke off, wincing.

"What is it?" Morgan said nervously. "You're not getting sick, are you? Because I've been with you all day, and—"

"Shut UP!" Valerie snapped, suddenly furious. She winced again, putting both hands to her head. "God, I think my brain is liquefying."

"Liquefying?" Morgan said, his eyes wide. "You're kidding, ri—" He cut off in mid-word as a low, rumbling noise came from just over the hill. "What was that?"

Valerie didn't answer, holding her head tightly with both hands where she was sitting crosslegged near the top of the little hill. She slowly leaned forward, letting out a low whimper.

Morgan grabbed the monoculars from the ATV, scrambled out, and ran up next to Valerie. He dropped to all fours and crawled till he could see over the crest of the hill.

He didn't need the monoculars. There was a rail rolling at high speed toward him, but it was white. _But...our rail is yellow. Did Danziger repaint it or something?_ "What the hell? Valerie, there's a—!" he said, and then saw the Terriers galloping after it. "Oh, god!" He ducked down, hoping they hadn't seen him.

"Make it stop," Valerie moaned.

There was a sound of gunshots, and Morgan hesitated, torn between the risk of poking his head up and the risk of not knowing how far away they were. He finally poked his head up, just in time to see one of the Terriers stumble and fall.

Valerie shrieked.

* * *

"Hey, Tosh, do you have a second?" Melanie said, trotting up to Toshiko by the Transrover.

"Of course," Toshiko said. "What did you need?"

Melanie looked slightly embarrassed. "Well, I was talking to Devon the other day, and she mentioned something about needing to get to know our people better, and it occurred to me that you might be just the person to talk to about that."

Toshiko looked confused. "You want me to talk to Devon?"

"No," Melanie said, looking oddly flustered. "I was wondering what you knew about Rob."

"Ohhhh," Toshiko said, smiling knowingly.

Melanie blushed. "Does he have any hobbies or interests?" she asked.

"I'd say you're at the top of his interest list," Toshiko said with a grin.

"Ha, ha," Melanie said. "I'm being serious here."

"Melanie, I don't have that kind of information. I just did the background checks, and I mainly looked at employment history and that sort of thing. About all I can tell you for certain is he doesn't have a hidden criminal past."

"Well, that's better than nothing," Melanie said. "Not that I was worried about that or anything." She got a thoughtful look. "Wait, you said employment history?"

"Yes," Toshiko said warily. "But that's confide—"

"What do you know about Julia getting fired by that Dr. Harrison, before his lab blew up?" Melanie continued as though Toshiko hadn't spoken at all.

Toshiko shook her head. "I can't tell you."

"But you do know," Melanie said, studying Toshiko's face. "Never mind. It's none of my business anyway." _And I think I know where to go to find out, anyway_, she thought.

Toshiko looked relieved. "But I'll see what I can find out about Rob, okay?" she said eagerly.

Melanie smiled. "Thanks, Tosh." She turned and headed back over to Julia. She was looking intently at her tablet again.

"How's it going?" Melanie said.

Julia looked up, and her expression was grim. "I have a problem," she said.

"What do you mean?"

Julia shook her head. "Remember how Valerie said the diaglove had a subroutine to set the reading to show zero when it picks up gasparanium?"

Melanie nodded, frowning.

"Why would there be a subroutine like that? I mean, somebody had to set it to do that—so the question is why?"

Melanie looked confused. "I have no idea."

"Somebody—" Julia broke off with a bitter laugh. "The Council," she said, "didn't want any doctors detecting gasparanium. This diaglove was manufactured six years ago, and that firmware was part of its original settings. The other two are exactly the same. And I'm fairly certain the lab scanner back on the stations would have had the same thing. Now why do you think the Council would be so intent on making sure nobody detected gasparanium?"

Melanie's eyes went wide.

* * *

"Jesus!" Morgan gasped, turned and grabbing Valerie. "Shhh!" he said desperately. "They'll hear you!" He started to put one hand over her mouth, but she didn't look like she was going to make another sound. She was sobbing, shaking, her eyes screwed shut.

"Valerie?" Morgan said, but she didn't respond. He looked around, wondering what he should do. Then he realized he hadn't brought the mag-pro with him from the ATV.

He carefully lowered his hand from Valerie's mouth, worried she'd cry out again, but all she did was take great, heaving breaths and then whimper, "Nononononono."

Morgan scrambled down to the ATV, grabbed the mag-pro, powered it up, and ran back up to her. She had crumpled to one side by the time he got back to her, and she was barely conscious, but there were tears streaming down her face. He crawled back up to the crest of the hill and peeked over.

The rail had apparently crashed. It was tipped on its side, the wheels still spinning. There was one man, dressed all in white, lying next to it, unmoving. Another man was running away, firing a handgun as he ran. _Oh, god,_ Morgan thought. _They're Council agents. The Council is here?_

The Terriers seemed to be ignoring him. They were clustered around the fallen Terrier. Morgan put the monoculars up to look through them, and he watched as they knelt over the unmoving creature for several moments.

Morgan turned the monoculars to look for the other agent. He caught one last glimpse of him as he descended into some sort of ravine and disappeared.

"Come on," Morgan breathed as he swung the monoculars back to look at the Terriers. "Go get him! He's dangerous!"

One of the Terriers that was still standing turned and looked right at him. Morgan ducked down, rolling onto his back. "Oh, crap!" he whispered. "Oh, crap! I'm so dead!" _You didn't hear me say that_, he thought hard at it. _I'm just a rock. A big, unimportant, non-dangerous rock._ He waited for several seconds, then rolled back over and peeked over the hill again.

The Terriers were all still standing around the fallen one, but as he watched, four of them gently lifted it, turned and started walking slowly back the way they'd come, the others following in their wake.

Morgan sighed in relief. And then he heard the thundering of something galloping his way. _Oh, no_, he thought, and realized that one of the Terriers was coming towards him up the hill.

He ducked back down, looking at Valerie, but she was still almost catatonic, tears still streaming down her face. There was no way she was going to be able to use the mag-pro. He thought for a minute about trying to use it himself, but there was no way he'd be able to hit anything. Danziger had banned him from using them altogether after their first attempt at target practice. _Crap_! he thought again.

He set the mag-pro down, curled up in a ball, closed his eyes, and thought desperately,_ I'm a nice guy! I like Terriers! I don't want to hurt anyone! Please don't kill me! Please don't kill me! Please don't kill me!_

He heard the galloping sound stop just above him, and he opened one eye. There was a Terrier standing over Valerie, looking down at her.

"Please don't kill her," Morgan breathed.

The Terrier glanced at him, its antennae-horns tilting towards him, then it knelt next to her, putting one hand to her head, the claw carefully lifted so it didn't touch her. She moaned, then sighed, and after several seconds, her eyes fluttered open. The Terrier patted her head gently, then stood up.

"Thank you," Valerie whispered.

The Terrier bowed, kneeling on its midlegs, then stood and galloped back over the hill.

Morgan sighed in relief.

"Morgan," Valerie said a moment later. "Are you okay?"

"Me?" he said, but his voice squeaked as he said it. He looked over at her. She looked like she'd been through hell, her face tear-streaked, and her eyes bloodshot. "What about you? What was that?"

She shook her head. "Really not okay," she said. "I…I felt it dying, Morgan. It—" She stopped, taking a deep, shaky breath. "It was so scared. I tried to—but I couldn't tell what was me, and what was it—and then—" She stopped again, closing her eyes.

"What did that other one do?" Morgan asked.

"I have no idea," Valerie said. "I think maybe it…pulled me out. I don't think I could have broken whatever connection I had with the one that was dying." She shuddered. "God—"

Morgan reached over and patted her shoulder awkwardly. "Hey, you're still here," he said. "Your brain isn't liquefied. We're both still alive, right? That's good?"

She looked sidelong at him and smiled lopsidedly. "Thanks," she said. "Yeah, that's good." She rubbed one hand over her face, then stood up, wavering a little.

"Wait," he said quickly. "Are you sure you should be standing up? You could pass out, or fall over. What if you hit your head? I barely know how to use the diaglove, and—"

"Come on," she said, starting to walk up and over the hill.

"What? Where?"

"I want to see what those Terriers were so mad about," she said, and her eyes widened as she saw what Morgan had already seen. "Oh, god—" she breathed. "That can't be our rail—Rick and Rob are still miles away!"

"It's not our rail," Morgan said.

Her head whipped around and she stared at him, wide-eyed. "Then whose rail is it?"

"The Council," Morgan said. "I'm pretty sure that dead guy there is a Council agent."

"Council!" She grabbed the mag-pro from the ground and took off at a run.

"Valerie!" Morgan stage-whispered after her. "Wait! There's more of them! Crap!" He hesitated for an instant, then sprinted after her.

Valerie came to a stop next to the dead agent. He was staring sightlessly up at the sky, a Terrier arrow sticking out of his chest. Valerie scanned the area around the tipped-over rail.

Morgan ran up next to her. "Damn it, there's another one, one the Terriers didn't get," he said. "He ran that way." He pointed off to the northeast.

Valerie edged around the rail to look that direction, but she couldn't see anything moving. "My bet is he's still running," she said. "Come on, help me tip this thing back over."

Morgan helped her, and between them they were able to get it back upright. Valerie started to climb in, then looked down at the ground. She had caught her foot on a little satchel that must have fallen out of the rail when it tipped over. She picked it up. Inside, there was a set of gear, with a VR chip stuck in it, and a tablet, along with a jacket and some odds and ends. She pulled out the tablet, powered it on, and frowned.

"What is it?" Morgan said.

"It's a tablet," she said absently, studying the screen.

"I can see that," Morgan said impatiently. He peeked over her shoulder at it, but the screen was just a mass of garbled symbols. "What's on it?"

"It's encrypted," she said. "But it looks like standard Council encryption. Give me a few hours, and I can hack it."

Morgan raised his eyebrows. "Council encryption is foolproof!"

Valerie gave him an amused look. "Yeah, that's what they all say," she said. "Come on, let's see if this thing still runs," she said, climbing into the rail.

"Wait a minute," Morgan said. "The Council's here."

"Yeah, it looks that way," Valerie said from the driver's seat. She smiled as the engine started without a hitch. "And we're at nearly fifty percent charge," she said. "This is great—we don't have to wait for Rick and Rob to come get us."

"Valerie, the Council is here. On this planet. With us."

"Yes, Morgan," she said. "I'm not thrilled about it either. But we need to get this rail back to our camp, and I need to find out what's on this tablet. So calm down and help me."

"Calm down?" he said incredulously. "These are the people who already tried to kill us once! And I'm betting that the crash was their fault, too! They're probably here to finish the job!"

"Yes," Valerie said. "You're probably right. So maybe being out here," she gestured at the landscape, "isn't as safe as being back in the camp."

Morgan looked around wildly. "Do you think there are more of them out here?"

"I'm certain of it," Valerie said.

Morgan actually whimpered.

"Come on," Valerie said, trying to sound reassuring. "Let's get this back to the ATV. You can start tying a tow line while I talk to Devon."

Morgan still hadn't moved.

"Morgan, come on!" she said. "The sooner you start moving, the sooner we'll be safe."

He was still frozen, wide-eyed.

"Morgan, we need to warn the camp. You don't want anything to happen to Bess, do you?"

That got through to him. He looked at her, finally seeing her again, and shook his head wildly.

"Okay, then," Valerie said. "Get in."

* * *

"Well, crap," Danziger said, closing the channel with Valerie. "There goes the neighborhood."

Devon looked over at him, shaking her head. "I should have known," she said. "The first viable planet for colonization, and I thought we could have it to ourselves. How could I have been so naïve?" She sighed. "It's such a big planet, though. Why can't they share?"

"You're asking that about the people that tried to blow up our ship?" Danziger said dryly. "I don't think they learned all that much in kindergarten, Adair."

"So what do we do?"

"Well, first, we have to tell everybody," he said. "But after that, I don't know. We don't know where they are, how many of them there are, how many might be looking for us…"

"I hope Valerie can really hack that tablet," Devon said. "That might answer a lot of those questions." She sighed, then tapped her gear. "Todd, we're stopping here. Melanie, could you gather everyone by the Transrover? I have some news."

"Why are we stopping?" Julia said, climbing down from the Transrover and coming up next to Devon. "We've still got hours of daylight left." The others were coming up as she spoke.

"Is everybody here?" Devon said, looking around and doing a quick headcount. "Okay, I have to tell you something, and it's going to scare you. I need you to stay quiet so I can get the whole story out, okay?" She looked around at the suddenly worried faces, took a breath and said, "The Council is here. On this planet." She went on to tell them Valerie's story.

"You think those agents were looking for us?" Todd said.

"It's a good bet they were," Danziger said.

"That's crazy!" Helen said. "God, they're like one of those bad guys from slasher VRs. We went twenty-two light-years to get away from them. What does it take to get them to leave us alone?"

"But—maybe they want to help us," Bess said.

"Bess, they tried to kill us—twice," Devon said patiently. "Yale was able to reconstruct the ship's logs from the crash from the escape pod. There was no question, we were hit by a man-made object."

"Seriously?" Phoebe said.

Alonzo nodded. "I figured that was it," he said. "We got hit at the worst possible spot on the ship."

"And now they want to finish the job," Hardy said, powering on his mag-pro. "Well, I say screw that. They want to kill us, they're going to have to work to do it."

"Damn right," Todd said.

"But we don't know anything about what we're up against," Melanie said nervously. "They could have hundreds of people here, for all we know!"

"Maybe, maybe not," Devon said. "Valerie found a tablet in the rail. It's encrypted, but she thinks she can break the encryption. If so, there may be some information in there we can use."

"Really?" Melanie said, then looked nervous. "Then…I might have some news that fits with this."

Devon frowned. "What news?"

"Right after the crash," Melanie said, "I started getting this weird signal. It was encrypted, which didn't make any sense, but it cut off, and then I got distracted by everything else. Then, a couple of days later, I picked it up again. I couldn't do anything with it because of the encryption, so I just set my tablet to record them whenever it picked them up."

Julia leaned against the Transrover, her legs suddenly weak.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Devon said, irritated.

"I'm sorry, Devon," Melanie said. "But I thought we were alone here, so it didn't seem that important. I figured it was maybe a probe the Council had sent as part of the viability study. But now…"

"As soon as Valerie gets back, I want you to get with her," Devon said. "Breaking the encryption on the tablet is the first priority, and after that, those recordings."

"Got it," Melanie said.

"Julia," Devon said, turning to look at the doctor. Her face was ashen. "Julia, are you okay?"

"What?" she said, looking up at Devon.

"You're not feeling bad again, are you?" Devon looked hard at her. "Come on, sit down. You look awful."

"No," Julia said finally, waving her off. "No, I'm okay. It's just—"

"I know," Devon said. "This is hard to take in. But when Valerie gets back, I want you to check her out. She sounded like something awful when she was describing what she felt from the Terrier. I want to make sure she's okay."

Julia nodded.

Devon looked hard at Julia again, frowning. "You were still planning to ride on the Transrover the rest of the way today, right?" she said.

"Devon, I'm okay, really," Julia protested.

"No argument. And Mel, keep an eye on her," Devon said. "We still have a way to go yet today."

"It's not so bad," Danziger said. "There's a spot about four klicks from here that I think might be a good spot to make camp for the night. Rick and Rob found it before they headed south to get Valerie. They're on their way back to it now."

"Good," Devon said. "Does it have good cover?"

Danziger grinned. "Oh, yeah. That's why we picked it. From here on out, we're planning our camp sites for defensibility. I don't want to be caught out in the open if the Council shows up."

"You really think they're coming after us?" Toshiko said in a small voice.

"I have to operate on that assumption," Devon said. "I really hope not, Tosh, but when it comes to the Council, I've learned not to rely on hope."

* * *

They got the camp set up while Valerie and Morgan were still an hour out. "Sorry," Valerie said to Devon over the gear. "Towing the ATV is slowing us down. But I've already made some progress hacking the tablet. I should be able to get it done soon."

"Good," Devon said. "So do you think you can use the same hack on Melanie's recordings?"

"I don't think I'll have to," she said. "It looks like there's a VR encryption chip in this guy's gear. I'm betting it'll work on those. But even if it doesn't, if it's another standard Council encryption and if I have to start from scratch, it shouldn't take too long."

"And still no sign of that other agent you saw?"

"Not so far," Valerie said. "I'm really hoping the Terriers came back and finished him off."

"Well, hurry back. I don't like you being out there on your own," Devon said.

"Oh, but Devon, I have Morgan to protect me," Valerie said sweetly.

"Very funny," Devon heard Morgan say.

* * *

Julia stared at her tablet, but she wasn't seeing it any more. _I'm running out of time_, she thought. _Once Melanie and Valerie break the encryption, they'll know. I have to tell them first._

_It's already too late_, another part of her thought desolately. _I should have told Devon after I fell. I had the chance, and I blew it._

She shook herself. It might be too late to salvage her own situation, but it wasn't too late for the Eden Project. _I have to talk to Brendan one more time_, she thought. _I have to find out as much as I can from him, and then I'll go to Devon._

But it was going to be even more difficult now than it ever had been to get out of camp. Danziger had chosen his spot well. They were in a natural fort, with high rocks all around, and he'd stationed sentries on several of the rocks. There were plenty of ways to get through the rocks, but nearly all of them were under watch.

And she couldn't risk it till Valerie got back, anyway.

_In the meantime, I need to figure out what I'm going to say_.

* * *

Valerie swore as they rolled into the camp.

"What?" Morgan said, pulling to a stop.

"It's this damned tablet," she said.

"I thought you said you could hack it," Morgan said smugly.

Valerie glared at him. "I can. I already did. But there's a trip code. Without the password, if I try to read any of the files, it's set to wipe the whole tablet."

Devon ran up. "Are you okay?"

Valerie nodded. "But I need my tablet. I was able to hack this, but I may not be able to save all the files on it." She climbed out of the Council rail. "Where's Melanie?"

"Here," Melanie said, coming up with her own tablet.

"Give me your tablet," Valerie said. She took it from Melanie, tapped on the Council tablet for a moment, then looked at Melanie's. "These are the files you were talking about?"

Melanie nodded.

"Good," Valerie said. "Come on, let's go to my tent. We'll try downloading these files first, and then see if the chip works."

"Hold it right there," Devon said. "I want you to get checked out first."

"I said I was fine," Valerie protested.

"You may be fine," Devon said. "But I want confirmation from Julia before you do anything else."

Valerie sighed, but headed for the med tent.

Julia poked her head out just as Valerie walked up to it. "Oh, good," she said. "I thought I heard you. Come on in."

"There's nothing wrong with me," Valerie said. "I feel fine."

"She nearly passed out," Morgan said, following them in. "And one of the Terriers actually touched her, so you probably should make sure she doesn't have that disease you got."

"Shut up, Morgan," Valerie said.

"Hey, you were a mess," Morgan said. "I thought you were having a seizure or something."

Julia ignored them both. She ran her diaglove over Valerie, frowning as she studied the scan.

"What is it?" Morgan asked, worried.

"She's fine," Julia said. "But there are some really interesting readings from her brain."

"She has a pretty weird brain," Melanie said.

Valerie rolled her eyes. "Interesting how? Like a I'm-going-to-die-a-slow-painful-death interesting, or a gee-this-is-a-pretty-fractal-pattern interesting? And please don't use doctor-speak. I'm allergic."

Julia smiled wanly at her. "More of a you're-going-to-be-just-fine-but-this-is-fascinating-data kind of interesting. I need more time to study this. It might help me understand how they communicate."

"So can I go now?" Valerie said impatiently.

Julia nodded, but there was a weird expression on her face. "Before you do, I wanted to thank you."

"For what?" Valerie said, surprised.

"What you found on the diaglove," she said. "About gasparanium. It confirmed a theory I had."

Valerie looked intently at her. "You know what causes the Syndrome."

Julia nodded. "And I know why the Council is after us, too." She glanced over at Melanie, who nodded back at her.

"Hey, Heller?" Alonzo said, lifting the tent flap. "Oh, sorry," he said, seeing the crowd of people.

"No problem," Valerie said quickly. "We were just leaving, weren't we?"

"Yes, leaving," Melanie said. "Come on, Morgan."

"But I wanted to—" He stopped with a yelp as Melanie grabbed his earlobe between two fingers and dragged him past Alonzo out of the tent.

Alonzo rolled his eyes. "Subtle, isn't she?"

"Did you need something, Solace?" Julia said, staring at her tablet. "I-I'm kind of busy."

Alonzo frowned. "Solace?" he said. "I thought we'd gotten past that, Julia."

"I really need to look at this data," she said, still not looking up at him. "Whatever you need, can it wait?"

"Is this about the Council being here? 'Cause if you think that changes anything between us, it doesn't," Alonzo said, leaning forward to try to get her to look at him. "I know you, and I know you had nothing to do with this. So does everybody else."

"You don't know me," Julia said harshly. "You don't have a clue about me, so stop."

"Julia—"

"Get out!" she snapped, looking up at him, her eyes flashing.

"What did I do?" he asked quietly. "Whatever it was, I'm sorry."

Julia bowed her head over her tablet again. "Please, Alonzo," she said quietly. "I just need you to go away."

Alonzo looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. "Fine," he said. "But don't think you've gotten rid of me that easy, Heller." He turned on his heel and left the tent.

Julia looked up at the tent flap, and brushed angrily at a tear spilling down one cheek.

* * *

Valerie led the way into her tent. Toshiko wasn't there. _She must be on sentry duty_, Valerie thought. She headed for her bunk and pulled her tablet out from underneath it. She pulled up her backup utility and set it to back up the Council tablet.

"So what now?" Melanie said.

"Now I see if this works," she said. "There isn't really a way around this—which is exactly why they do it this way. If somebody hacks the encryption, this prevents them from reading the files. But if I can get a backup going, I might be able to snag at least a few of the files before it erases everything."

"What about the encryption on the VR files? Will that chip work?"

Valerie shrugged. "As soon as I get this going, we try it out. But my bet is it'll work—I doubt they were all that worried about security here. It's not like there was anybody out there to hack their stuff till we got here."

"I suppose," Melanie said. "But maybe we should get Devon first, before we start watching."

"Let's see what we have first." Valerie started the backup and watched as the file counter ticked up past 50, then stopped. The Council tablet went dead. "Well, there we go. At least I got fifty some odd files. Let's see what we got." She pulled up the file listing. There were several map files. She picked the first one and opened it. It was a map of the area just south of the Donut Hole, and it looked like a geological survey, with markings that might have indicated mineral deposits.

But that wasn't what caught her eye. It was the marker at the center of the map.

"Well," Melanie said. "Now we know where they are. Does it say how big their camp is?"

Valerie shook her head. "Not here, anyway. Let's see what else is on here."

* * *

Julia finished typing up her notes on the Syndrome and her gasparanium theory and sighed. She saved the file onto her tablet under the name "For Devon."

She opened another file and typed, "Alonzo," and stopped, blinking hard. Then she closed the file without saving it. She set the tablet gently on her lab table.

_Time to go_, she thought, grabbing her gear and her chip. She shimmied underneath the back of her tent. She looked around carefully to make sure no one had seen her, then started making her way carefully out of the camp, keeping an eye on the sentries as she went.

It took her nearly twenty minutes of maneuvering to get far enough away that she felt she could safely go into VR. She looked around, making as certain as she could that her spot was safe. She was wedged into a cleft between two rocks, facing the camp. _At least that way if something does come toward me, there's a chance the sentries will see it._

She took a deep breath, running through her plan one more time in her mind, and put on her gear.

* * *

"Holy cow," Melanie said. "Over a hundred of them?" She stared at the personnel files they'd found.

"Hey, that's actually pretty reassuring," Valerie said. "I'd been expecting a lot more. And look at the job descriptions. There aren't really that many full agents on their roster. We won't be going up against all that many of their trained soldier-types."

"I guess," Melanie said. "But they still outnumber us three to one. And they've been here for a long time, and they have all sorts of supplies."

"Come on, Mel," Valerie said, waving her hand airily. "They've already tried to kill us twice and screwed it up both times. I'd put my money on us."

"I hope you're right," Melanie said uneasily.

"I wonder what these markers mean," Valerie said, pointing to some symbols next to some of the personnel files.

"Beats me," Melanie said, looking at them closely. "Is that everything you got?"

Valerie nodded glumly. "Sorry, but they really did a number on that tablet."

"Hey, I'm thrilled we got that much. Devon will be, too." She glanced at her own tablet. "So…do we go ahead and see what's on these before we talk to her?"

Valerie grinned. "Absolutely! I'd much rather go to her with a rundown on where the rest of the agents looking for us are. Chances are that's what those are—those agents reporting in. If we can figure out where they are, then we have a much better chance of staying the hell away from them."

Melanie called up the first file and saved it to her VR chip, plugged it in, took the encryption chip from Valerie and plugged it into her gear. "You ready?" she said, and Valerie put on her gear and nodded. Melanie synced their gear, and started the VR.

The world dissolved into the standard blue-lit platform of VR. Julia was standing just in front of her, facing to Melanie's right. Melanie gasped.

"Uh…hello?" Julia said quietly. She looked exhausted, dark circles under her eyes. As Melanie watched her, she even swayed slightly.

"Julia?" Melanie heard Valerie say next to her. "What the hell?"

"Shhh!" Melanie hissed. "Just watch!" But she was thinking exactly the same thing Valerie was. _What the hell is __Julia__ doing in an encrypted VR file?_

There was a flare of light in front of Julia, then a column of static that coalesced into a young man Melanie didn't recognize. Julia looked surprised and she took a half step backwards.

"Well, this is a pleasant surprise," the man said, smiling brightly. "I'm so glad to see you're all right, Dr. Heller."

Julia's expression shut down like an airlock door. "I'm more than a bit surprised myself," she said slowly. "I thought we were the only people on G-889."

The man nodded. "About a year before the Eden Project set its launch date, the Council determined that it would be prudent to have a backup plan for your group," he said. "Now it looks like that was a very lucky decision. And even luckier that we went ahead with the deployment of the satellite relaying your signal. I'm Brendan Riley. And I've heard a great deal about you." He glanced to one side, like someone was talking to him outside of VR. "I have someone here who is going to be very pleased to see you."

There was another flare of light next to him, and a woman appeared.

And there was no mistaking the resemblance, even before Julia said, "Hello, mother."

"Holy crap," Valerie breathed. "Is that—?"

"Julia!" the woman said, and for an instant she looked frightened.

_God_, Melanie thought,_ what could scare a full Council member?_

"She survived the crash after all," Brendan said. "Isn't that a lovely surprise, Miriam?"

"Are you all right?" Miriam said, looking concerned. "You look exhausted."

"I'm fine," Julia said, but she looked unsteady. "Where are you?"

"Just south of the-—"

"I was about to ask you the very same thing," Brendan said, cutting her off. "I'd love to send my men to provide assistance."

Julia hesitated for an instant. "I-I don't know yet," she said. "We've been doing triage on the injuries, and I haven't heard whether they've determined our location yet."

"That is your first priority," Brendan said. "As soon as you have coordinates, you will report back to me, is that clear?"

Julia stiffened. "And if I…can't?" she said, and Melanie knew in an instant she'd initially started to say 'won't.'

Brendan glanced sidelong at Miriam, and Melanie knew exactly what he was implying. _Dear god_, she thought. Clearly, Julia had reached the same conclusion. The color drained from her face, making the dark shadows under her eyes even more stark. "I'm sure you'll find a way," Brendan said, a cold look in his eyes. "You're a resourceful woman. Now tell me, how many of you survived the crash?"

"I don't know," Julia said. "We only have the one escape pod so far."

"That is your next priority. I need to know exactly how many of you there are, who they are, and what supplies you have access to," Brendan said briskly. "In order to determine how best to help you, of course. How about injuries? You said you were doing triage. How serious are they?"

"One—" Julia began, but her voice broke. She took a breath. "One dead so far," she continued, and Melanie ached again for her. "The pilot has multiple fractures in his leg, and he hadn't had the boneheal vaccine, so he won't be moving any time soon."

"That's excellent," Brendan said. Julia looked for an instant like she wanted to hit him. She even took a half-step forward. "I'm sorry," Brendan said quickly, though he didn't really sound all that sorry to Melanie. "I didn't mean to take pleasure in anyone's pain. I simply meant that it will be easier to find you if you're not moving. Is your escape pod beacon working?"

"I-I don't know," Julia said.

"Find out," Brendan snapped. "I cannot emphasize this strongly enough, Doctor. If you do not give me the information I need, I can't be held responsible for what happens to you…or those you care about."

Julia's expression hardened even more, and Melanie wished she could reach out and slap Brendan.

"Keep yourself safe, Julia," Miriam said suddenly with the faintest emphasis on the second word, and she reached up to rub the inside corner of her eye with one finger. "Remember my rules." But even as she said it, her image flared brightly and then disappeared.

Julia frowned, then looked like she'd figured something out. Something awful.

_What rules?_ Melanie thought. _What did she mean?_

"I'm sorry," Brendan said. "Your mother had urgent business elsewhere. Now…where were we? Oh, yes, I think it would be best if you kept this conversation to yourself for the time being. There are those in your little group who might not be receptive to Council assistance. Do you understand?"

"Perfectly," Julia said with a brittle edge to her voice, and Melanie looked at her hard. She recognized that look—it was the look she'd had on her face the first time she saw Morgan Martin after the crash. Julia reached up, and the VR disappeared around them.

Melanie slowly pulled off her gear.

"Jesus," Valerie said. "She's been talking to them from the beginning. All those times she left the camp on her own, that's what she was doing." She sounded furious. "She wasn't talking to the Terriers at all."

"That bastard," Melanie said. "He's been using her mother against her." And then she remembered when this recording had to have happened. "That's why she was so angry when she saw Morgan—remember all the things she said about the Council? She'd just had this conversation when she saw him." She shook her head.

"All this time, she's been lying to us," Valerie said as if she hadn't even heard Melanie.

Melanie tapped her gear. "Devon, get over to Valerie's tent. Right now."

"Did you get into the recordings?" Devon said.

"Yeah, and you're really gonna want to see this," Melanie said and closed the channel.

"I can't believe this," Valerie said.

"Shut up, Valerie!" Melanie said. "Don't you get it?"

"Get what? That she sold us out?"

"You really need to calm down," Melanie said steadily.

"Calm down?" Valerie said.

"Valerie, I need you to think through what you just saw," Melanie said. "Don't you see what he was doing?"

"What is it?" Devon said, coming into the tent.

"Watch this," Melanie said, and after Devon had put on her gear, she played the recording again. This time, Melanie watched Julia's mother, and she had some idea of what she'd been trying to tell Julia before she disappeared.

"Then when Julia told me she was talking to the Terriers," Devon said, pulling off her VR gear, "that was—"

"A bald-faced lie," Valerie said.

"You understand what's going on here, though, don't you, Devon?" Melanie said.

"Is there more?" Devon said.

Melanie nodded. "We only watched the one so far." She loaded the next recording as fast as her fingers could move. "Come on," she said, shoving the gear into place on her head. "Here's the next one."

Julia appeared in front of her again. She looked a lot better than she had in the first one, but her expression was so controlled it was almost frightening.

"Brendan," she called.

He coalesced in front of her. "Julia! What do you have for me?"

Julia's chin tilted up slightly. "A location," she said. "Using New Pacifica as the prime meridian, we're somewhere near 70 degrees north and 130 degrees east."

_Wait, what?_ Melanie thought, looking hard at Julia. _That's not—_

"Jesus, she actually told them where we were?" Valerie exclaimed.

"That's excellent!" Brendan said, beaming. "I'm afraid you'll still be on your own for a while —that's quite a distance for my men to travel, but it shouldn't be more than three weeks—"

Melanie felt her tablet vibrate. She shut down the VR. The tablet showed that another signal was being picked up. Right now. _Of course_, Melanie thought. _She must have known we'd figure it out, and she's making one last contact. But what is she trying to do?_

Devon was staring at where Julia had just been, frowning.

"You shutting that down isn't going to protect her. She told them where we were! I can't believe—!" Valerie said, furious.

"No," Melanie said, tapping on the tablet to make sure it was recording. "No, you don't understand. That wasn't right."

"Damned straight that wasn't right," Valerie said angrily.

"No," Melanie said. "That's not what I mean. The coordinates she gave him—that wasn't where we were. She gave him the wrong coordinates." She grabbed her gear and began setting something up on the VR.

"The wrong—?" Valerie said. She looked back to where she'd just seen Julia. "But…" she said. "Damn. I was doing it again, wasn't I? Then she was trying—"

"To protect us? I think so," Devon said. "But why didn't she just tell us? We could have helped her!"

"Damn it, we can figure that out later!" Melanie said. "She's in there right now talking to them!"

"Can you get us in without them knowing?" Devon asked.

"I can," Melanie said. "Just give me a second."

* * *

"Brendan," Julia called.

"Julia," Brendan said, dissolving into view. "I was afraid we'd lost you."

"Not yet," Julia said. "Listen, I don't have much time. Are you in contact with your men?"

Brendan frowned. "They have regular check-in times," he said. "Why?"

"I think one of your teams isn't going to be checking in," she said.

His eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"One of our scouts saw a dunerail with Council markings, carrying two Council agents. They watched them get attacked by a group of Terriers. At least one of the agents was killed."

Brendan's eyes went wide. "They were sent out in groups of three," he said, then looked like he regretted having said it. He glanced to the side and nodded sharply. "I have my people checking on it."

"Where are your other teams?" Julia said.

"Where are you?" Brendan replied.

"Damn it, Brendan, I can lead your men straight to the Eden Project, but I need to find your men first," she snapped. "I need to know now, because I'm going to have to get out. Soon."

"What do you mean? Why?"

"Because our scouts found one of your tablets, and they think they can break the encryption," Julia said. "Is my name in that tablet?"

Brendan frowned. "It's very unlikely they'll be able to get anything useful out of our tablets," he said. "Council encryption is very—"

"Very unlikely isn't going to cut it, Brendan," Julia said. "Are they going to find my name in there?"

Brendan pursed his lips. "If they managed to recover any of the files, then I suppose it's possible—"

"Then I have to get out of here," Julia cut in. "If they figure it out, then I'm dead. I'm not going to take that gamble. I want out. Where the hell are your men?"

* * *

"Come on," Devon pleaded as Melanie tapped away at her gear. "Hurry, Mel!"

"I'm in," she said, slapping on her gear. "Sync up, and let's go."

Valerie quickly shoved on her gear as Devon flipped her eyepiece into place.

"Where the hell are your men?" Julia was saying.

"How do I know you're not just doing this to get me to give away their locations?" Brendan said reasonably. "Your reliability has been in question for some time."

"Because now it's my life on the line," Julia said. "You don't know these people. They'd kill me if they found out."

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" Brendan said. "Devon Adair never struck me as the vengeful type."

"She is when it comes to her son," Julia said.

"Even so, I don't think you have anything to worry about. Council encryption is very secure."

"You don't know Valerie Carter," Julia said grimly.

"Carter is with you?" Brendan said sharply. "You never said that before. Who else is part of your little band that you haven't told me about?"

Melanie saw a flicker of fear in Julia's eyes.

"Shit," Valerie said under her breath. "Melanie, send me in."

"What?" Devon said. "Why?"

"What are you going to do, Valerie?" Melanie asked.

"Just do it!" Valerie snapped. "Trust me!"

* * *

"Didn't I?" Julia said, her heart pounding. "I'd swear I did." _Damn it! I screwed it up again!_ she thought. _The first rule of lying is keep it simple. Don't say too much. How could I have been so stupid?_ She started to say something else, but before she could continue, someone else began to coalesce into VR.

Julia turned to look, and her heart sank. "You lying, two-faced bitch!" Valerie shouted.

Julia recoiled from her, glancing sidelong at Brendan, then bowed her head, thinking fast. _It's perfect_, she thought. _It's exactly what I need to make him think they're angry with me, that I really have been helping them. And then maybe he won't hurt her_. But that meant she couldn't deny the accusation. And for a moment, she wasn't sure she could do that.

"All those times everyone made excuses for you, and you were throwing us to the wolves!" Valerie continued, waving her hand at Brendan. "I told them we couldn't trust you! Once a Council flunkie, always a Council flunkie!"

Julia steeled herself, looked up and tried to give Valerie the disdainful look her mother had always been so good at using. "I've only done my duty," she said, her voice brittle like dried leaves in her effort to keep it steady.

"Your duty?" Valerie spat. "Was it your duty to blow up the lab, too? That was you, wasn't it!"

Julia hadn't been expecting that, and her resolve faltered. "What? No, I wou—" Julia began, unable to keep silent, but Valerie was having none of it.

"Stop lying! It's over, don't you get it? It was over the minute I hacked the encryption, you just didn't know it." She turned to look at Brendan with disgust. "And as for you and your gang that couldn't shoot straight, you might as well give it up. The bomb didn't work, whatever the hell it was you shot our ship with didn't work—"

"I'd say they worked quite well," Brendan said. "How many of you actually survived the crash? Fifteen?"

Valerie smiled savagely. "Fifteen is enough," she said. "And if you think for one second you're going to be able to stop us, think again. We figured it out. Now that your little stooge isn't broadcasting her beacon, you'll never find us. Until we come and kick your sorry ass back to the stations!"

"Don't be so sure, Ms. Carter," Brendan said. "We don't need much to pick up your trail. Dr. Heller's signal got us close enough."

"Signal?" Julia said, the color draining from her face. "What signal?"

"Oh, come on, like you didn't know?" Valerie said derisively. "That little chip of yours isn't going to lead them anywhere once we smash it."

Julia looked away, breathing raggedly, shaking her head. "No," she whispered. "No, it can't be—"

"God, you just can't stop, can you? Just like your mother—you're incapable of telling the truth. All that money she funneled into Harrison's research, and all the time she was setting him up."

_Harrison?_ Julia thought, her mind spinning. _What money? What is she talking about?_

"Telling him to fire you because you would bring too much attention to the project, that was a nice touch. Though considering what I've heard about her, I'm surprised she didn't just let you blow up along with Harrison and Jamie."

Julia stared at her, shaking her head.

"Well, maybe I can't get her," Valerie went on, "but I can bloody well make you suffer for it. You can give up hoping for rescue—it isn't going to happen."

"Ms. Carter, I wouldn't make any threats—" Brendan started to say.

"Our people are on their way to you right now," Valerie said, ignoring him completely, her focus entirely on Julia now, and the look on her face was oddly calm. "And when they get there, they'll make sure you pay f—"

Julia ripped off her gear, turning around to face the camp, her heart racing, expecting to see them coming for her, but there was nothing between her and the lights of the camp. She stood for a moment, breathing hard, then switched off her gear, turned and ran for her life.


	12. Chapter 12

_A/N: So here's the big finish to the 'first season.' (Yes, I'm finishing this at work (shhhh!)-I just couldn't stand waiting, and I've needed the writing therapy the last few days.) I've been trying to do this so the whole thing could, in a pinch, stand on its own. Obviously, there's a lot of stuff I've set up for the next season (and I even have plans for season 3, but one thing at a time), but I wanted to complete the main first season story arc. Brace yourself: angst-a-palooza ahead. Thanks once again for all the unbelieveably kind reviews—I'm really overwhelmed by the response to this. _

* * *

Earth Two

Chapter 12

"Christ, Valerie!" Devon said, watching her take off her gear.

"What the hell was that!" Melanie snapped.

"Melanie, you heard him," Valerie said, looking almost as sick as Julia had. "They've been using her mother to get her to do what they want. If they found out she really was lying to them, how long do you think they'd keep her mother alive?"

"But—"

"That was the only way I could think of to convince them that both Julia and her mother were still loyal to the Council," Valerie said. "And I think she caught on—that bit about doing her duty was perfect."

"Do you think he bought it?" Devon said, looking worried.

"I don't know," Valerie said. "I-I wasn't really watching him all that much."

Melanie's face changed. "Wait—that's what that whole thing about Harrison was about? Was Julia's mother really funding his research?"

"Not just his research," Devon said. "Tosh told you that, didn't she?"

Valerie nodded. "A couple of weeks ago."

"We had some anonymous donors funnel a boatload of money into the Eden Project in the last year—right after Harrison's lab explosion," Devon said. "Tosh was trying to find out who they were, and then all of a sudden, she stopped. And she wouldn't tell me why."

"You mean…Julia's mother?" Melanie said. "But…why? She's a Council member."

Valerie shrugged. "I have no idea. All Tosh told me is that's why Harrison fired Julia—because Julia's mother was worried that Julia being involved would bring too much attention from the Council. And it would have put her in danger, too," Valerie said.

"And that's why you suddenly stopped being so mean," Melanie said wonderingly. "But why did Tosh tell you? She wouldn't tell me anything."

Valerie frowned. "Because—"

"Because Valerie was engaged to Jamie Sinclair," Devon said, looking sadly at Valerie.

Melanie goggled at her, then turned back to Valerie. "But why didn't you say anything?"

Valerie looked at her like she was an idiot. "Right, I'm just going to say, 'Hey, Julia, I hated your guts because I thought you killed my fiancée, but now I know I was wrong, and by the way, your mom's great. I hope she's not dead.'"

"Actually, would that have been so bad?" Devon said, and Melanie nodded emphatically.

Valerie sighed. "Maybe not, but I was embarrassed about how I'd acted, and I couldn't figure out how to tell her. But I will tell her as soon as I find her. Can you find her on the gear?"

Melanie called up the locator on her tablet, but Julia's gear wasn't showing up. "She must have turned it off."

"Well, she can't be that far away," Devon said.

"Wait," Melanie said. "What was that you said about a signal, Valerie?"

Valerie shrugged. "A guess," she said. "It's standard for a Council encryption chip like that to have a locator. Most of the time it's pretty weak signal, so I'm betting your stuff wouldn't have picked it up, or at least not enough for you to recognize it. But if they had a satellite with a signal booster, they might have been able to track her with it. It's what I would have done."

"You mean, they've been tracking us through her?" Devon said, and then her face went white.

"Then maybe we can use it to find her," Melanie said, looking down at her tablet again. "What kind of signal is it?"

"Find her," Devon interrupted. "Find her fast." She jumped to her feet and ran out of the tent.

"What?" Valerie said. "Why—?" She stopped, her face going as white as Devon's had. "Oh, no."

* * *

Julia caught her foot on a rock and went skidding down the side of the ridge she'd been running along. She rolled several times, banging her knee painfully on a rock, before she came to a stop at the bottom.

She lay there for several seconds, trying to catch her breath, but the blind panic she'd felt in VR was still there, overwhelming her.

_God, I've been leading them straight to us the whole time,_ she thought. _What have I __done__? They'll find them, they'll kill them. All of them. Uly and Tru, Devon and Danziger, Melanie…Alonzo. Oh, god, and it's all my fault._

"No," she said out loud. "No. I won't let it happen." _If I keep going, maybe I can lead them away. Maybe they're still far enough away from us. From them._ She forced herself to her feet, though her legs felt rubbery.

She started off again, this time at a slightly slower pace, grateful that her hiding place away from the camp had been back to the east. _At least I ran the right direction_, she thought. _And I can keep running. I have to. Until they find me._

* * *

"There it is!" Valerie said. "That has to be it!"

Melanie stared at the tablet. "Valerie, she's nearly a kilometer away. And heading east." She looked up at Valerie. "What is she doing? She didn't have to be that far away to avoid us catching her."

Valerie closed her eyes, shaking her head. "That's what Devon meant. She's running," she said. She opened her eyes, looked at Melanie, and stood up.

"Running?" Melanie said. "Where? Why?"

"I should have known. I tried to give her clues, but I couldn't risk being too clear," Valerie said. She put one hand over her mouth for a moment, then pulled it away, clearly coming to a decision. She grabbed her gear and put it on. "You need to keep track of that signal. I'm going after her. Come after us in one of the vehicles once they get back."

"But…they're all off scouting or hunting!" Melanie said, checking her gear locator. "What the—? Alonzo must have taken off in the ATV—he's off south, five klicks away."

"Get them the hell back here!" Valerie said, starting for the tent flap. She paused, looking back. "Tell Alonzo to hurry. I think we're going to need his help getting her to come back."

"What? Why?"

"Because I really don't think she's going to believe anything I tell her right now," Valerie said, and ducked out of the tent. She ran over to where Toshiko was standing guard.

"Valerie? What's wrong?" Toshiko said.

"I need your handgun and flashlight," Valerie said.

"Why? What's—?"

"There's no time!" Valerie said. "Just give them to me!"

Toshiko handed them over, wide-eyed.

"What's going on?" Todd said from his position by the Transrover.

Valerie ignored him. "Go find Melanie. She'll explain."

"Explain? Explain what?"

Valerie didn't answer. She just turned and ran east as fast as her legs would carry her.

* * *

"Danziger, Helen, Alonzo, how far out are you?" Devon was saying into her gear.

"We're about 4 k out," Helen said. "What's up?"

"Danziger?" Devon said.

"About six," he said.

"Fiveish," Alonzo said.

"How are your charges?" Devon said.

"Devon, what the hell is going on?" Danziger said.

"Just answer me, damn it!" Devon snapped.

"I'm at about twenty percent," Helen said.

"Fifteen for me," Danziger said. "It's been slow going over this—"

"All of you get the hell back here as fast as you can," Devon interrupted.

"Why?" Alonzo said. "What's wrong?"

"I'll explain when you get here!" Devon snapped. "Just move!"

Toshiko came up to Devon, looking frightened. "What is it? Where's Valerie going?"

"What?" Devon said. She slapped her gear. "Melanie, what's going on?"

"We got a signal," she said. "Valerie's going after her."

"On foot?"

* * *

Julia very nearly ran off another cliff as the fading light from the long-past setting sun gave way to twilight. She'd still been running, though it was punctuated more and more by walking. _Which is probably a good thing_, she thought, staring at the steep drop before her. _It must be the canyon Danziger mentioned the other day. I must have angled more to the south than I thought._

_Which is perfect_, she thought suddenly. _If I follow the canyon down, if Brendan's men are on this side, it'll still lead them away from the Eden Project. But if they're on the other side, they'll have to go the long way around to catch me._

_God, please let them still be on the other side_, she thought. _If they are, then maybe I can still make it all okay._

"Please," she whispered.

* * *

"Valerie," Melanie said into the gear as she walked towards Devon's tent. "How far are you?"

"Maybe…a klick. No, more," Valerie said, clearly breathing hard. "How long till you come after us?"

"At least ten minutes, maybe fifteen," Melanie said grimly. "They're all on their way, but that's the soonest you can expect. Sorry."

"It's…okay," Valerie said. "It's better than nothing. I'll just do my best to slow her down."

"How are you going to do that?"

"I can be really annoying…when I want to be," Valerie said. "If it comes to it, I'll just make her mad enough to argue with me."

"She's turning a little to the south," Melanie said, studying the tablet as she came to Devon's tent. "I think she's must have gotten to that canyon. I think she's following it to the southeast. If you head straight east till you get to it, then follow it down, you should catch her." She stopped, the pit of worry in her stomach deepening by the second. "Hurry, Valerie. She's out there without anything."

"I know," Valerie said. "I'll find her, Mel. I promise."

Valerie closed the channel and paused, leaning on her knees and breathing hard. _Suck it up_, she told herself sternly. _You can do this._

_Thank god I'm still in halfway decent shape_, she thought, and winced as she remembered Jamie telling her she had a thing for six-pack abs.

She'd spent six months doing weight training and kickboxing with a professional trainer, only to have Jamie tell her she'd been kidding. The funniest thing about it was that she'd always thought she'd hate that kind of exercise, but she'd found out she enjoyed it.

_And Jamie found out she really did have a thing for six-pack abs_, she thought, but she wouldn't allow herself to feel the ache that normally followed such thoughts. _I'll find her, Jamie_, she thought. _I'll find her, and she'll be okay_.

* * *

Melanie spent several minutes explaining what was going on to Toshiko, and through the whole explanation, Devon had been increasingly agitated. "So Valerie went after her on her own," Melanie finished.

"I'm going to kill her," Devon said, shaking her head furiously.

"Look, Valerie's just worried about her, and she felt bad that—"

"I'm talking about Julia," Devon said.

"Oh, stop it!" Melanie snapped. "I think I have more right than anybody to feel betrayed, okay? But as stupid as she has been—and she has been galactically stupid—she has spent the last six weeks trying to keep us and her mother alive, and those were two mutually exclusive goals."

"Melanie," Toshiko said, "let me—"

"I don't care what she was trying to do," Devon said. "She should have told us!"

"What if she couldn't?" Toshiko said.

Both Melanie and Devon turned to her, frowning.

"Think about it—the Council never does anything without having a backup plan," Toshiko said. "Why on earth would they bank everything on Julia, who they knew wasn't going to help them willingly?"

"What are you saying?" Devon said.

"I'm saying, what if there's another spy?"

* * *

Julia stopped to rest for a moment, sitting on a rock near the edge of the cliff, trying to think through her options.

_I never should have just taken off like that_, she thought. _I have no supplies, nothing to protect myself with, not even any water. I'll be lucky to last three days._

But even as she thought it, she knew it was pointless to worry about now. She'd done it, and now she had to live with it. _Or die with it, as the case may be._

Even now, the panic that had sent her running was still pulsing inside her, telling her to get up, to keep running. But she was already tired. She knew she was pushing her body too far, too fast, too soon after having been so ill.

_And now you need to think_, she told herself._ Running blindly isn't going to do them any good. You have to be smart about this._

_The best option would be to find a way down to the bottom of the canyon_, she thought suddenly. _If they're close, they'll have a harder time catching me if I'm down there. And there'll be water at the bottom._ She briefly considered turning back north, since it would be far more likely that there'd be a way to get down closer to the foothills. But she just couldn't risk it. _Hopefully, there'll be another Terrier path down somewhere on this side_, she thought.

_And what about Brendan?_ she thought. _Do I leave him thinking I've been killed, or do I go back in?_

_I have to go back in_, she realized almost instantly._ I can tell him I got away from them, but I'm following them. That way I have a better chance of him telling his men to follow my signal._

_But not yet_, she thought. _Not when I'm still so close to the Eden Project. They might be angry enough to send someone after me, and that would be a disaster. _And not just because it would put them in danger. She cringed at the thought of what they would say, of how they would look at her. _Better to never see any of them again._

But she knew she had to, at least once._ They have to know I'm not the only one._ She braced herself, and pulled out her gear.

* * *

"Melanie?" Julia's voice came over the gear.

"Julia!" she said, and Devon's eyes went wide. She grabbed for her gear.

"Look, I know what you think—" Julia said.

"No, Julia, you've—"

"Shut up and listen!" Julia snapped. "There's a file. On my tablet. It's addressed to you. Just open it. You'll know what to do."

"Julia, wait, don't—" but she'd already powered down her gear. "Damn it!"

"How long until Helen gets here?" Devon asked.

"At least ten minutes," Melanie said, and nodded. "There's time." She scrambled to her feet, and set off for the med tent at a run, with Toshiko and Devon following behind.

It was easy to find the file, but watching the VR Julia had recorded was quite another matter.

"If you're watching this, then something must have happened to me. If so, there are some things you need to know. I—" Her voice broke, and she stopped and swallowed, then clearly tried to regain control. She smiled faintly. "You're going to be really mad at me, Melanie. I screwed up. But this is me trying to fix it, okay? So just listen."

* * *

The moons were starting to rise, peeking up over the horizon on the far side of the canyon. Valerie had made it to the canyon edge a few minutes earlier, but there was no sign of Julia. _Well, at least it doesn't look like she's thrown herself off the edge_, she thought, looking down at the river far below. As awful as the thought was, it had been worrying her.

She turned south, jogging at a steady pace, which was much easier now that there was more light. The flashlight had helped her a lot, and she knew it had to have helped her gain ground on Julia. _There's no way she could have gone very fast in the dark without the flashlight._

But she worried now that the moons were providing this much illumination that Julia would be able to pick up her pace.

_Maybe not_, Valerie thought. _She's still getting over being so sick. Maybe she'll have to rest._ She felt bad for hoping that was the case.

_I'll go another five minutes and then check with Melanie to see how close I am_, she thought. She pushed herself to go faster, knowing the chances of Julia running into something dangerous were greater the longer she was out there by herself.

_For once, let her stay out of trouble_, Valerie thought. _Please._

* * *

"Melanie, whatever you do, you can't go south," Julia was saying in VR. "They'll find you if you get anywhere near their base. You need to go west, cross the mountains and then turn south for New Pacifica." She took a breath. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you this myself. You deserved better than that from me. But I—well, it really doesn't matter now. Just…do what I told you, and stay safe." She smiled, blinking hard. "I'm glad I got the chance to know you."

Devon sat silent for a long time after the message ended. Julia had told them everything, from her first encounter in VR with—_what was his name?_ Devon thought. _Brian? No, Brendan_—all the way up through the encounter with the Terriers. She must have recorded it after she'd been so sick.

Devon straightened up. "That's what she meant," she said suddenly, making Melanie jump. "When she was delirious, Tru said she'd been having the same nightmare, that the Council was after us. And she made me promise I'd keep going west." She shook her head. "She was trying to tell me then." She sighed. "I can't believe I didn't see it."

"She fooled us all, Devon," Melanie said. "I can't imagine what must have been going through her mind that day after the concussion. No wonder she looked so awful. She must have thought she'd have to tell you then."

"And instead I handed her an excuse on a silver platter," Devon said, shaking her head.

"But what do we do about the spy?" Toshiko said. "I mean, that's why she was so scared to tell anyone. But now, how do we know who we can trust?"

"Maybe Julia will be able to—"

"Devon, it's Helen," she said over the gear. "We're rolling into camp now. Does somebody want to come out here and tell me why we had to break land-speed records getting back here?"

* * *

_At least I warned them_, Julia thought, tucking her gear into her jacket. _And maybe Melanie might be willing—_

She broke off the thought. _Walk away_, she thought. _Walk away and don't look back. You'll never see her again, so you can tell yourself she'd forgive you all you want. You might even convince yourself to believe it._

She stood up, wishing she could afford to take longer to let her legs recover, but she was still too close to the camp for her to feel safe. _Safe_, she thought and almost laughed. _Like you're ever going to feel safe again._

"Julia!"

Julia's head shot up, and she saw Valerie jogging towards her along the cliff's edge only fifty meters away. She backed away, turning to run, and stumbled as one foot caught on something. She went down to one knee, and started to her feet.

"No, wait!" Valerie said. "Don't run!"

Julia ignored her, heading for a low jumble of rocks just to the south. _Maybe I can lose her_, Julia thought wildly, half-expecting to get shot before she could make it.

"Please, Julia!" she heard Valerie yell behind her. "It's not…I'm not here to hurt you!"

Julia made it to the rocks, but Valerie was close behind her. _Too close. And I'm too tired._

"Damn it, Julia!" Valerie said, gaining ground. "I'm tired…of running! Just stop! Let me explain!"

"Explain?" Julia said, turning to face her with her back to the rocks, breathing hard. "What are you talking about?"

Valerie stopped a few meters away, leaning heavily on her knees with both hands, breathing hard. "Thank you," she said. "God, running sucks. Weightlifting…way better."

"What do you need to explain?" Julia said. "Because what you said in VR was pretty clear."

"No," Valerie said, shaking her head and looking up at Julia. She stood up straight, still breathing hard. "No, apparently it wasn't. Look, I was trying to help."

"Help?" Julia said, almost laughing. "Yelling at me was supposed to help?"

"I know all about what you've been doing," Valerie said. "That part was true—I know all of it. You've been lying to them, from the beginning."

Julia reared back, bumping into the jagged rocks behind her. "What? But—?"

"We used the dead agent's encryption chip," Valerie said as if it were obvious. "Melanie and I watched the recordings she'd been making. Well, the first two, anyway. I'm sure the others will make for interesting viewing, too."

Julia blinked. "But—"

"Let me finish," Valerie said, holding up one hand. "I know why you ran. And it's not just because you have the chip with you. I understand you, better than you think. And you need to know one thing: we can forgive you. All of us."

For a moment, Valerie thought she'd convinced her. Her expression softened, and she looked almost hopeful. But then it was like a cloud passed over the moon, and her eyes darkened again. "No," she said, shaking her head. "I've lied too many times."

Damn, Valerie thought. "Okay, you've lied. That's bad, believe me, I get it. And god knows, Melanie's pissed off at you about that. So am I. But we'll get over it."

"Get over it?" Julia said incredulously. "Valerie, you shouldn't get over it. What I did was wrong. Too wrong to just get over."

"So, what then, you just leave?" Valerie said. "How do you think she'd feel about that? What about Devon? Or Tru? What about Alonzo?"

Julia looked sick. "They'll be fine," she said, but it sounded like she was trying to convince herself. "They're better off—"

"Don't you dare say that!" Valerie said harshly. "Don't you dare!"

Julia stopped, looking shocked.

"I wanted to hate you," Valerie said, knowing now what she needed to say. "When I got onto the advance ship, and you were there, it was like the universe was punishing me for something. Because you were there, and she wasn't."

"She—?" Julia said.

"I wanted so badly just to throw you out an airlock. Or off a cliff. Or under the Transrover. I had any number of scenarios worked out in my head." She shook her head. "But Tosh kept telling me that I should give you a chance, that I didn't understand you. She wouldn't tell me anything specific until I pushed her. She'd done more than the usual background checks. You know how thorough she is. And apparently Devon was really reluctant to hire you, even after Jim Harrison said you walked on water."

Julia winced.

"He thought the world of you, you know," Valerie said gently.

"No," Julia said bitterly, looking away. "I didn't know."

"Tosh told me why he fired you," Valerie said, and Julia's head shot up. "It had nothing to do with you—well, not directly, anyway. It was your mother."

Julia's expression changed, and Valerie realized it had been hopeful, but now it was resigned. "Of course it was," she said.

"No, not like that," Valerie said. "You knew Harrison was losing his grant funding—the Council was putting pressure on anybody that was donating. So he was ready to shut down the lab entirely. And then your mother showed up and offered to keep the funding coming."

"Wait—so what you said in VR, that was—" Julia said, her face a kaleidoscope of feelings.

"I said that because it was at least partly true, and it was the one thing I could do to try to help her," Valerie said. "She deserves it. She was only trying to protect Harrison and his work. She told him as long as you were working for him, the risk was too great that the Council would make the connection between you and her. That's why he fired you. I guess she told him he needed to convince you that it was for your own good, but he didn't trust himself to be able to lie well enough. So that's why he did it by comm message, the idiot. Jamie was so mad."

"J-Jamie?" Julia said.

"We had dinner that night—our fourth date, actually, and yet another reason I had to not like you. Jamie spent the whole dinner ranting about how stupid Harrison was—"

"Wait," Julia broke in. "You were Jamie's…" She faltered.

"Fiancée," Valerie finished for her. "Yes."

"Oh," Julia said, and the one word spoke volumes of understanding.

"Jamie wasn't exactly good at sharing. She liked you, but she had such a hard time getting to the point where she could trust people. It was a cast-iron bitch to get her to go out with me. Nobody believed me when I told them she was the one who proposed."

Julia stared at her for a long moment, then nodded slightly. "I'd heard she was engaged. I…I had no idea..."

"So you can understand my…behavior…towards you, right?" Valerie said.

"I'm not sure I would have been as restrained," Julia said quietly. "For what it's worth, I'd've given anything to have been the one in the lab instead of her."

Valerie laughed bitterly. "See, that's just the problem. Every time I thought about how much I just wanted to kill you, you'd turn around and do something that was just like her." She smiled crookedly. "If it had been you in the lab, she'd be saying exactly the same thing. Did you know Harrison called you his twins?"

"No," Julia whispered.

"Trust me, it wasn't because you looked all that much alike." She looked at Julia for a long moment. "Though you do sort of have her eyes."

"Don't," Julia said, shaking her head. "I know what you're trying to do, but it won't work. I won't—"

"No, just listen," Valerie said. "You're all ready to go off and leave behind a whole bunch of people who care about you. And I'm trying to tell you that you'll be making a much bigger mistake than anything you've done so far. They all care about you."

"But I don't—"

"What? Don't deserve it? Bullshit. And they're not better off without you, damn it! I know that's the kind of crap you tell yourself to justify walking away—I've seen it before. Jamie spent almost a year trying to convince me she wasn't fit to shine my shoes. And there isn't anything—anything—I wouldn't do to have her back screwing up my life again. I miss her. I miss her every minute I'm still alive and she's not—every second—" She stopped, blinking back tears. "Don't do that to them."

"But I have to," Julia said desperately. "It's the only way to keep them safe."

"No, it isn't," Valerie said insistently. "I can think of a dozen ways we could throw them off our scent. No," she continued, stepping closer to Julia, "you're leaving because you're scared. Not of the Council, not of tramping through the wilderness with animals ready to eat you, not of dying. You're scared of caring."

"No," Julia said.

"Yes," Valerie said relentlessly. "You're just like your mother, you know. She didn't hold you at arms length because she didn't care about you. She did it because she cared so much, and it scared her. You spent your whole life trying to be different, and you're just like her."

"Stop it," Julia said, her jaw clenched.

"You're such a coward," Valerie said, knowing she was pushing Julia. _I have to_, she thought. _It's the only way to get through to her._ "You're going to do to us what she did to you. And I will not let you pretend it's because you're some kind of heroic martyr—"

"Shut up," Julia whispered.

"—when you're nothing but a scared little girl. Damn it, Julia, it's time for you to grow the f—"

* * *

Melanie was afraid it would be another ten-minute round of explanations once they went out to meet Helen, but it wasn't. Devon just marched up to the ATV, ordered her and Bill out of it, climbed in and turned to look at Melanie.

"Well?" she said.

"Oh," Melanie said. "Wait! Let me go grab a med kit!" She sprinted for the med tent.

"Tosh will explain everything to you," Devon said to Helen. "As soon as Danziger and Alonzo get back, send them after us quick as you can. I don't like going out there without backup."

"I don't like you going out there at all," Helen said, frowning. "The moons aren't up very far yet, and the ATV charge is down to twenty percent. It's going to be hard to see where you're going once it really starts to get dark, and you could end up stranded out there."

"It's a chance we have to take," Devon said. "Come on, Melanie!" she shouted.

Melanie scampered out of the med tent and over to the ATV. She clambered on the back. "Okay!" she said. "Let's go!"

* * *

Valerie didn't even see it coming. One moment she was talking, and the next she was lying on the ground, her cheek throbbing and her eye already starting to swell. "Ow," she said, wincing. She looked up to find Julia standing over her in the pale moonlight, rubbing her right hand absently, looking horrified. "That's a hell of a right hook you've got."

Julia backed away, getting dangerously close to the cliff's edge. "I'm sorry," she said. "I—"

Valerie waved away her apology. "I knew what I was doing," she said. "It's so easy to push your buttons. Julia, don't you get it? You are just like your mother. Because there's no way you would have worked so hard to protect her if she hadn't proven herself worthy of being loved. And you have, too."

"I…" Julia faltered.

"Come back with me," Valerie said. "It'll be okay. I promise."

"Why are you doing this?" Julia whispered. "Why can't you just let me go?"

Valerie looked at her and smiled sadly. "Because you're so much like Jamie it hurts."

Julia's breath caught in a sob. She turned around and looked out at the rising moons for a long moment, and Valerie held her breath, wondering if she'd said too much.

"I'm not her," Julia said in a small voice. "I can't be that—"

"I'm not asking you to be," Valerie said quickly, even though there was a part of her that wanted it so badly. "I wouldn't do that to you." _Please, don't go._

But when Julia finally turned around, she looked defeated. "Melanie's going to yell at me."

Valerie let out her breath in a sigh of relief. "Does that mean I got through to you?"

"I didn't think you were giving me a choice," Julia said dryly.

Valerie smiled. "I wasn't. How do you think I got Jamie? I fight dirty." She looked at Julia for a long moment. "Tell me something. That first time you went in, your mother said something about her rules. What was that about?"

Julia sighed. "When I was small, she made me memorize a set of rules I was supposed to follow. The most basic rule was never trust anybody but yourself. The next one was, if she ever rubbed her eye with her middle finger, it meant I had to watch what I said, because the Council was listening. It took me a second to realize what she meant—Brendan was right there, so obviously they were listening. But then I figured it out. She meant there was somebody in the Eden Project."

"Somebody—you mean another spy?"

Julia nodded. "That's the main reason I couldn't tell anyone. I didn't know who I could trust."

Valerie nodded. "Well, now you know. There's me, there's Melanie and there's Devon. And that's just for starters. We'll figure out the rest. So where's the encryption chip?"

Julia stared back at her for a moment, then fished it out of her pocket.

Valerie took it from her hand, turned to look out over the edge of the cliff, then cocked her arm and flung it out into the chasm.

"No—!" Julia gasped and half-raised her hand to reach after it. It glinted for an instant in the moonlight, then disappeared into the dark canyon.

"Relax. Those things float, and there's a river at the bottom of that cliff, remember? That was number one on my list of alternative plans. Mainly because it was the easiest." She reached up to tap her gear. "Hey, M—" Her voice cut off with a strangled gasp, and Julia turned to see her falling into a crumpled heap. And there was a man in a Council agent's white uniform standing over her, a tech-glove on his left hand.

"Hello, Dr. Heller," he said, smiling. "I've been looking all over for you."

* * *

"OW!" Melanie yelled, ripping off her headgear.

"What is it?" Devon said, turning to look up at her from the front seat of the ATV. "What's wrong?"

"I just got some nasty feedback over the comm," Melanie said, wincing. She hesitantly put her gear back on and tapped at it. "Valerie?" There was nothing, not even the beep of the directional. "Oh, crap."

"What?"

"I've lost Valerie's signal," she said.

"You mean she shut it off?" Devon said.

"I don't think so," Melanie said uneasily. She tapped her gear again. "Alonzo!" she said. "Where are you?"

"About 2 klicks behind you," he said. "Danziger and Helen are in the rail right behind me. Why?"

"I need you to get over here, fast," Melanie said.

"Helen gave me the condensed version of what's going on," Alonzo said. "Is Julia okay?"

"I don't know," Melanie said. "But I have a bad feeling that Valerie's in trouble. And knowing Julia, she's probably in the middle of it." Melanie glanced down at Devon. "The last location I got on Valerie's signal was that way, and she'd been stationary for a few minutes. It's not far—not quite half a klick."

Devon nodded and floored the ATV.

_I swear, Julia, if you're not okay, I'll never, ever forgive you_, Melanie thought, holding onto the ATV rollbar as they bounced wildly over the rocky landscape.

* * *

Julia knelt and lifted Valerie's head. Her eyes were open, but she looked dazed, like she couldn't focus on anything. "Valerie?" she said.

"Don't worry about her, she'll be fine," the agent said. He sidled around Valerie so his back was to the cliff. He was holding a handgun in his right hand and was pointing it at Julia.

"What did you do?" Julia said angrily, looking up at the agent.

The agent waved his hand with the tech-glove. "This thing is very handy for subduing criminals. One jolt from this, and they get very compliant."

"Electric shock?" Julia said. "That's dangerous! You could have stopped her heart!" She turned back to Valerie and felt for her pulse. It was there, a little erratic, but strong.

"It happens occasionally," the agent said dismissively. "Which is why I didn't use it on you. My superiors were very clear that I was to bring you back safely." His eyes narrowed. "I have a feeling they're going to be a little less interested in your well-being once I tell them what I know."

"Really," Julia said coldly. "And what do you think you know?"

"That you're at least a hundred klicks farther west than you said you were, that you're headed west, not south, and that you have motorized vehicles," the agent said. "All of which tells me that you weren't really all that interested in being found."

_Then you haven't been in contact with Brendan recently_, Julia thought, breathing an inward sigh of relief. _Maybe I can still pull this off._ She glanced down at Valerie, who was starting to look a little more focused. Julia lowered Valerie's head to the ground, squeezed her shoulder briefly, and stood up to face the Council agent.

Julia studied him for a moment. His uniform was a mess, with a ragged tear at the right shoulder, and she could see blood through the rent. There was a bruise along the side of his face, old enough it was starting to turn interesting colors. And he wasn't wearing headgear. _This is the agent Valerie and Morgan saw_, Julia thought.

"Well, there's certainly a reason you're the one taking orders instead of giving them," Julia said dismissively. "We're farther west than I said because we found the vehicles. And you clearly haven't been in touch with the base recently, or you would have known that I updated our position for Brendan."

"Really," the agent said skeptically, his eyes narrowed.

"Really," Julia said coldly. "And the reason I'm out here is because I got caught trying to check in." _And how much of our conversation did you overhear?_ she wondered.

"Then why did you just let her pitch your encryption chip off that cliff?" the agent said angrily, gesturing at Valerie with the tech-gloved hand.

"Oh, come on, do you really think I'd give that up?" Julia said. "That was a collection of VR mysteries I lifted from Morgan Martin's tent."

The agent's eyes lit up. "Then you still have your encryption chip?"

_And you're just desperate to get it, aren't you?_ Julia thought, kicking herself for not anticipating that. "Of course," she said.

"Hand it over," he said. "Along with your gear."

"So you can tell Brendan your ridiculously misinterpreted version of events?" Julia said. "I don't think so."

"Hand it over," the agent repeated. "Or I'll use this glove on you."

"And risk damaging the chip or the gear?" Julia said, shaking her head. "That would be just as stupid as I'd expect from you." She took a careful step backwards.

"Then I'll shoot her," the agent said, stepping around Valerie to follow her, then turning to point the gun at Valerie. "You seemed awfully concerned about her well-being."

"Do you know how close we are to the camp?" Julia said, trying hard to keep a neutral expression on her face. "You fire that gun, and they'll be on top of us in minutes." She took another step backwards.

"If you don't stop right now, I'll take that risk," the agent said, pointing the gun at her again and taking a step closer to her.

Julia forced herself not to look at Valerie, who was now slightly behind the agent. _How long will that shock keep her down?_ Julia wondered. However long it might be, she had to stall. It was clear the agent wasn't going to let her get a chance to overpower him, even if she thought she could manage it. He was at least six inches taller than her, and powerfully built. _But maybe if Valerie—_

There was a sound from behind her, and Julia turned to see the ATV rolling up the hill towards her with Devon driving and Melanie perched on the back. Before she could say anything, the Council agent had his left hand clamped around her neck, pulling her tight against him. She grabbed wildly at the hand with the gun, shoving it to the side as he fired.

Devon slammed on the brakes and grabbed for the mag-pro at her side. She flipped it on, aiming it towards him. She climbed carefully out of the ATV, keeping the mag-pro leveled at him.

Melanie scrambled down to stand behind the ATV, trying to decide if she should stay there or move out and provide another target. She couldn't decide, so she split the difference. She edged around the ATV and moved up behind Devon. She glanced over at Valerie, who was lying half on her side, looking like she was trying to get up, but she seemed to be having trouble. "Valerie?" Melanie called.

The agent turned, yanking Julia with him, so he could keep an eye on Valerie.

"Shoot him!" Julia said, still struggling to keep the gun hand at bay.

"Let her go and step away," Devon said, moving slowly up the hill towards them.

"Devon, sh—" Julia began, but the agent locked his hand tighter around her throat and she couldn't get more out. She pulled at his hand with her left hand, but couldn't loosen his grasp. Her face started to go red.

"Let her go," Devon repeated, aiming the mag-pro at his head, trying to look more confident in her aim than she felt.

"She's right, Devon. S-shoot him," Valerie said, her voice oddly ragged.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he said, pulling Julia backwards with him and glancing back over his shoulder as he did. "We're awfully close to the edge. Even if you did hit me instead of her, there's a good chance we'll both go over."

"Better that than let you leave with her," Melanie said defiantly. That earned her a grateful look from Julia. _God, don't be glad I said that_, Melanie thought sickly. _Come on, Alonzo. We __need__ you._

"We're going to back away now," the agent said, ignoring her as Julia took a rasping breath. "I'm perfectly willing to shoot any of you if you try to stop me." He ripped his hand free of Julia's clearly weakening grasp and pointed the handgun menacingly at Devon.

"Are you serious?" Melanie said. "How many bad crime VRs have you watched?"

"Melanie," Devon said under her breath. "Shut up."

"This isn't VR, smartass," the agent said. "And even if it were, I'm the good guy." He started edging his way along the cliff's edge to the south, Julia shuffling unsteadily backwards in his grasp, both her hands now pulling at the hand grasping her throat.

Devon took a step forward.

"Damn it, Devon, shoot him!" Valerie said.

"Don't!" the agent said, and Julia made a strangled noise, her eyes rolled back for a moment, and both of her hands fell. Melanie could see her hands were shaking. "I can control this glove with one hand. You do not want to see what a full power shock will do to her. Just ask her," he added, nodding over at Valerie.

"Devon, if you let him go, he'll kill her, and then he'll make sure they kill all of us," Valerie pleaded.

Something changed in Julia's eyes, and then everything happened at once. Valerie gasped, "Julia, no!" Julia suddenly sagged in the agent's grasp, and for an instant, he lost his balance. Then she shoved backwards hard, sending them both towards the edge. The gun in the agent's hand went off. Devon gave a yelp and fell backwards, the mag-pro tumbling to the ground. Melanie tried to catch her as she fell, but they both ended up on the ground.

And when Melanie looked up, Julia and the agent were gone.

"Oh, god," Melanie said, unable to take in what she'd just seen.

Devon was unleashing a stream of profanity Melanie never would have expected could come from her mouth, breathing shallowly between every word. Melanie could feel her shaking.

Valerie had made it to her hands and knees and was staring at the spot where Julia had just been.

Melanie closed her eyes for an instant, and then shook herself. She lowered Devon as gently as she could to the ground and looked to see how bad it was. The bullet had hit her right arm just above the elbow, and there was blood streaming down her arm, soaking through her shirt sleeve.

"Valerie," Melanie called. "I need your help." She was amazed at how calm her voice sounded.

Valerie didn't answer.

"Valerie, come on! I need you!" she snapped, and Valerie turned to look at her. "Help me—put pressure on this while I go get the med kit."

Valerie blinked and then nodded. She scrambled clumsily over and put her hand over the wound. Devon's stream of profanity was punctuated by one last word and for a moment she subsided into gasping. It didn't last long, though. Even as Melanie ran for the ATV, Devon was looking hard at Valerie, who stared resolutely down at the hand she had clamped over Devon's bleeding arm.

"Wh-where's Julia?" Devon managed to get out through gritted teeth.

Valerie caught her breath for an instant, but didn't answer.

"Valerie?" Devon said in a ragged voice.

"Stop talking, Devon," Melanie said, skidding to a stop next to her and dumping the med kit to the ground. She yanked the diaglove out and began scanning Devon's arm. "It's not as bad as it looks, and not nearly as bad as it must feel," she said, smiling weakly at Devon.

That earned her another unexpectedly foul word from Devon. "I don't care how bad it is! Where the hell is Julia?" she said furiously.

Melanie smiled at her again, grabbed a hypo and shot it into Devon's neck.

"N—" Devon managed to get out before her eyes slid shut.

"I can only deal with so much right now," Melanie said very quietly and began working on Devon's arm.

Valerie didn't say a word the whole time Melanie worked on Devon. Melanie finally finished wrapping a bandage strapping the arm to Devon's chest and then sat back on her heels.

She looked up as she heard a sound, and started to reach for the mag-pro, then relaxed as she saw a flash of a familiar yellow coming through the trees down the hill. Danziger pulled the rail up next to the ATV, and before he and Helen could climb out, Alonzo pulled up in his ATV. He was out and running towards them before he'd even come to a stop.

"What happened?" Alonzo said. "Where's—?" He stopped cold as he saw the look on Melanie's face. "No."

"Devon?" Danziger said, running up. "What the hell?"

"She's—" Melanie began and her voice broke. She swallowed. "Devon's going to be fine, John. She got shot, but she'll be okay."

"Shot!" Danziger began, kneeling beside Devon and putting one hand to her hair. Then he shook himself and looked harder at Melanie. "What about you?" he said with a remarkable gentleness.

"Pretty far from okay," Melanie said, but even then the tears didn't start.

"Valerie?" Helen said.

Valerie looked up at her, but didn't say anything.

"She's had a nasty electrical shock," Melanie said. "I want to keep an eye on her to make sure there aren't any after effects."

"Electrical shock?" Danziger said, confused. "How?"

"Council agent," Valerie said. "He's dead now." She got to her feet and walked slowly over to the cliff's edge, looking unsteady enough that Helen followed her and grabbed her arm.

It was a good thing. As she got to the edge and looked down, her knees buckled. Helen managed to keep her from pitching over the edge, lowering her carefully to her knees, and nearly went over herself when she realized what Valerie had seen.

"Valerie?" Julia said. She was about three meters below, lying precariously on her back on a narrow ledge and looking dazed. Her left leg was dangling over the edge, but she didn't seem aware of that.

"Julia!" Alonzo said, landing on his knees next to Valerie and looking overjoyed. "Are you hurt?"

"I'm…not sure," Julia said thickly, and her voice sounded raw. "I can't…feel much."

"Enjoy it while you can," Valerie said slowly, breathing hard. "It's gonna hurt when the feeling comes back."

Danziger ran up next to Helen. "Woah, don't move, Doc," he said as she looked like she was trying to get up. "It's a long way down."

Julia turned her head slightly, saw the vast expanse of nothing next to her and looked back up, her eyes wide. "Thanks," she said weakly.

Melanie came up, looking even more dazed than Julia.

"What the hell happened?" Alonzo said. "And what's with the electrical shock?"

"The agent had a tech-glove," Valerie said with a slightly wild-eyed look. "A really sadistic one. He hit me with a shock, we had a little standoff, and then Julia did her superhero impression."

"Don't feel very super," Julia said. She was covered in dust, and there was a nasty scratch on one cheek oozing blood.

"How else did you survive that fall?" Valerie said. "God, Julia, I was sure you were dead. I'm pretty sure the agent is." She was careful not to look at the tiny, decidedly motionless white figure lying at the river's edge far below.

"I don't know," Julia said. "I was pretty sure I was dead…and then I was lying here with everything tingling. He—he must have shocked me when I tried to knock him over, but then…" She trailed off and swallowed hard. "I guess I got lucky."

Valerie began to laugh, and then couldn't seem to stop. Melanie was looking at her like she'd lost her mind, and that just made it worse. Valerie rolled onto her back and lay there giggling helplessly.

"Was there only the one agent?" Danziger said uneasily.

"God, I hope so," Julia said with feeling.

Danziger seemed to come to some sort of decision. "Okay, you just hang on for a sec, Doc," Danziger called down to Julia. "There's some biocord in the rail," he said to Helen, who nodded and took off running. "We'll have you up here in a minute."

"Valerie?" Julia called after a few moments. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, she's fine," Alonzo said, sounding annoyed. Valerie seemed to be winding down, and now she just looked exhausted. "She's just having a moment. How much can you feel now?"

"I'm still pretty tingly. And my head hurts," Julia said. "I don't think I ever want to do this again."

That finally seemed to break through the fog in Melanie's head. She rolled her eyes heavenward. "I swear to god, Julia Heller, if you ever do any of this again, an electrical shock is going to be the least of your worries!"

Valerie rolled back onto her hands and knees and looked over the edge at Julia.

"I told you she'd yell at me," Julia said when she saw Valerie's face.

"I'm just glad you're here to be yelled at," Valerie said, and started to giggle again.

"This isn't funny," Melanie said with a dangerous edge to her voice, but both Valerie and Julia were too far gone to notice it.

"It's a little funny. Incongruity is one of the cornerstones of good comedy," Julia said, and she started laughing, too, but with a giddy edge to it. "Valerie's glad I'm not dead. Everybody else is mad at me. And I'm really not all that good with heights."

"So why do you keep throwing yourself off of cliffs?" Alonzo exclaimed, starting to understand Melanie's hostility. _They're acting like it's all a big joke!_

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Julia said, smiling crookedly at Valerie, and that sent Valerie into nearly hysterical giggles again.

"What's with her?" Helen said, running up with the biocord.

"Crazy," Melanie said coldly. "Completely nuts. Both of them." She stood up. "I'm going to go take care of Devon."

Alonzo frowned, watching her as she walked away.

He glanced at Danziger, who shrugged. "I'm not gonna try to figure it out till I get the whole story," Danziger said, tossing the biocord over the edge to Julia. "Can you tie that around you? Be careful, you're really close to the edge."

Julia swallowed hard and closed her eyes. "Please don't remind me," she said. "Give me a minute. I'm not sure I want to try moving just yet."

"Ha!" Helen said. "You just don't want to come up here and deal with Melanie."

"Absolutely," Julia said emphatically. "I've done more than my share of stupid things already. Now I'm playing it safe."

It took several minutes before Julia felt like she could manage to get the biocord around her safely, and another several before Helen and Danziger were able to pull her back up. Julia had helped some, but her legs were still pretty shaky.

When she reached the top, Julia fell forward onto her hands, breathing heavily. "Where's Devon?" she said.

"Over there," Valerie said. "She'll be okay—she took a bullet in the arm, and Melanie sedated her when…" She stopped and swallowed hard.

"She got shot?" Julia stood up unsteadily, and Alonzo grabbed her by both arms and looked hard at her. "Let me go, Alonzo," she said. "I need to go check on Devon."

"You need to let Melanie look at you, too," Alonzo said, wanting desperately to put his arms around her, but he knew better than to try to stop her when she was in doctor mode. He led her over to where Devon was lying peacefully with her arm bound against her. There was a tiny spot of blood starting to show through the bandage.

Melanie didn't look up when Julia knelt down next to Devon. "Can I have the diaglove?" Julia said.

Melanie handed it over without a word, and Alonzo frowned. _This isn't like Mel at all_, he thought. He glanced over at Danziger, who was coming up with one hand still holding Valerie steady.

"Do you think there are any other agents around?" Danziger asked Valerie.

She shook her head. "I don't think so. At least not close. Otherwise he'd have just stalled us instead of trying to get away on his own. And he wanted Julia's gear, so I'm betting he hasn't been in contact with anyone else since the Terrier attack."

Danziger didn't look convinced. He tapped his gear. "Tosh?" he said. "I want you to warn everybody in the camp. There are probably more Council agents in the area." Helen picked up Devon's mag-pro and started scanning the area to the north.

Julia finished her scan and looked up at Melanie, who was still looking down at Devon. "Nice work, Mel," she said, taking off the diaglove and handing it back to Melanie. "But you really need to stop sedating people because it's conv—"

Melanie swatted it away. "Don't you dare act like everything's okay!" she snapped. She stood up and backed away. "It's not okay! It's not!"

_Oh, boy_, Alonzo thought. _It was only a matter of time before she blew. And I don't blame her a bit._ "Easy, Mel," he said against his better judgment, reaching for her.

"I thought she was dead," she said, pulling away from his outstretched arm. "I watched her go off that cliff and I thought she was dead!"

"Melanie," Julia said, standing and stepping carefully around Devon. She held out her hands placatingly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"

"Sorry?" Melanie said incredulously. "You're sorry?" She stepped close to Julia and poked her finger at her. Julia's eyes went wide, and she took an involuntary step backwards, looking over at Alonzo appealingly, but Melanie was just barreling onward, and Alonzo seemed perfectly willing to let her. "You do not get to be sorry! Sorry doesn't even begin to cover this! Sorry is for things like…like…taking the last tomato or…or…"

Julia reached up, hesitated, then tentatively put her hands on Melanie's arms. "Melanie, please," Julia said earnestly. "I'm sorry."

Melanie let out a breath she must have been holding and blinked hard. "Damn it, Jules, don't you get it?" she said softly, and started to cry.

Julia looked dismayed and pulled her into a hug. "I'm trying to, Melanie," she said. "I really am. But…this…I—I don't know…"

Alonzo looked over at Valerie, unsure of what to say.

"The hardest part of learning how to care about other people is learning how to let yourself be cared about," Valerie said softly.

Julia glanced at her in surprise.

Valerie smiled. "Something Jim Harrison told me once. He knew what he was talking about."


	13. Chapter 13

_A/N: Yeah, so as happy as I was with the ending of chapter 12, I couldn't resist this. And it has the unexpected benefit of taking care of the odd-numbered chapter jinx. Anyway, a little love-candy for my A/J fans. Consider this my thank you to all for the great reviews, and for reading the whole cotton-pickin' thing._

* * *

Earth Two

Epilogue

"So," Alonzo said, coming into the med tent the next morning. "Feeling better?" He'd waited till Melanie headed over to check on Devon. She'd smiled at him encouragingly as she passed him, and he hoped she had the good sense to take her time.

"I guess so," Julia said, packing away the equipment on her lab table.

"You don't sound so certain," Alonzo said, coming up next to her and leaning against the table so he could see her face.

She glanced at him, and she looked nervous. "I'm still a little sore," she said.

"That's not what I meant," he said gently.

"I know," she said very softly, looking intently down at the lab table.

"I didn't get a chance to say much to you last night," he said, and that was an understatement. Melanie had insisted on riding back in the rail with Devon and Julia, so he hadn't been able to talk to her then. And when they got back, Julia had gone right to the center of camp and spent nearly two hours answering every single question everyone had.

It hadn't been easy to watch. There had been some hostility, particularly from Hardy, Morgan and, of all people, Bill. By the time Melanie had called a halt to the grilling, Julia had looked like she was about to drop. But almost everyone seemed to have accepted her apologies, especially after Valerie had offered her wholehearted support. And Alonzo had been so proud of her for facing it all without hesitating.

But after that, Julia had retreated to the med tent under Melanie's watchful eye, and Alonzo had been left standing in the middle of camp, frustrated. The one thing that had kept him from charging into the med tent was Valerie. She'd taken him aside to tell him what had happened. But hearing what she'd said had only made him want to see Julia even more. Waiting for Melanie to leave the tent that morning had felt like an eternity.

"I'm sorry about that," Julia was saying, turning a hypospray over and over in her hands. "It's just, I couldn't—"

"Oh, no, I wasn't blaming you," Alonzo said quickly. "No, I just meant, I wanted to say it now. Well, not say it, exactly." He reached around to take her by the shoulders, turn her towards him, and pull her close.

She stiffened for an instant, then relaxed slightly, and after a moment, put her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder. She was shaking slightly, and he realized she was crying. He stroked her hair. "It's okay," he said. "You're safe now."

And the moment he said it, Julia knew that was why she couldn't seem to stop crying. She'd been so sure she'd never be safe again, but here, in his arms, she felt safe. _He doesn't hate me_, she thought wonderingly. _How is that possible?_

After a long time, Alonzo eased back to look at her. "Better?" he said.

Julia nodded, biting her lip and sniffling.

"So I've had a lot of time to think about things, and Valerie told me a little bit," he said, still holding her, and he felt her tense slightly.

Julia looked up at him, frowning slightly. "What did she tell you?"

He looked at her, and there was an intensity in his eyes that made her heart start to race. "Her theory about why you left," he said. "Was she right?"

"I'm not scared," Julia said, trying to sound confident, but Alonzo kept looking at her, and the longer he did, the faster her heart was beating. _No, not scared_, she thought. _Terrified. How did I go from feeling so safe to this so fast?_

"You don't have to be afraid," Alonzo said, putting one hand to her cheek.

"I'm not," Julia insisted, wanting desperately to pull away, but knowing if she did it would simply prove his point.

"Oh, then your heart must be beating so fast because you like me," he said, smiling rakishly.

"Like you?" she said, and her voice was shaky. "What are you, twelve?"

"All right, then," he said, and his smile became softer, "because you love me."

And there was the automatic shut-off again. Suddenly, she couldn't think at all. And then he was kissing her, and thinking wasn't all that important.

He pulled away after a long, wonderful moment and smiled at her again. "That wasn't so scary, was it?"

Julia looked up at him, her heart still pounding. "A…" She stopped, taking a breath. "A little bit."

"Well, you know the best treatment for phobias, right?"

"What's that?" Julia murmured, hoping he was thinking what she was.

"Constant exposure," he said, and kissed her again.


End file.
